NHS Right to Choose
Your choices in the NHS
Did you know that in many cases you have the legal right to choose where you have your NHS treatment?
The NHS is offering more and more options to enable you to make choices that best suit your circumstances, giving you greater control of your care, and hopefully better results.
There are often specific conditions or needs to be met first for right to choose, but essentially it means, if your doctor thinks you should see a specialist and they refer you to Hospital A, but you would prefer to go to another specialist at Hospital B, as long as all of the conditions are met, it might be possible for us to refer you to Hospital B instead through Right to Choose!
You can view what choices are currently available to NHS patients in the NHS Choice Framework. Here you'll also find information about when you cannot choose – for example, if you need emergency care or you're a member of the armed forces. Make sure you know which options apply to you.
About Right to Choose
If a GP needs to refer you for a physical or mental health condition, in most cases you have the legal right to choose the hospital or service you'd like to go to.
This will include many private hospitals if they provide services to the NHS and it does not cost the NHS any more than a referral to a standard NHS hospital.
There are lots of reasons why a patient might want to use NHS Right to Choose, sometimes a service may have a long waiting list, you may be interesting in a specilist trial available somewhere else, or could have difficult memories which could make it hard for you to attend appointments.
You can also choose a clinical team led by a consultant or named healthcare professional, as long as that team provides the treatment you require. Find out more about choosing a hospital or consultant and choosing a mental health service.
Non-NHS Psychological Services
It is true that many more people are investigating this as a possibility to explain their emotions and behaviour. This on the one hand is good, as it maybe underdiagnosed especially in some groups. We are however seeing an increase in demand for alternative services in behaviour diagnosis such as ADHD, and would request all patients familiarise themselves with the options around NHS Right to Choose before making their decision.
Many options exist for patients wanting to investigate or pursue a diagnosis of a conditions effecting behaviour, such as ADHD, an increasingly popular choice is using the NHS Right to choose service to refer to a Non-NHS Physological Service.
- More about NHS Right to Chose for ADHD Services