Most patients are supposed to be able to choose the clinician whom they want to provide them with healthcare and that money to pay for the service should follow their choice.
[1] The regulations provide that a patient can choose to be seen by any NHS trust, public body, commercial organisation or third sector body, provided it holds a “commissioning contract” either with NHS England or a Clinical Commissioning Group when they are referred by their GP, community dentist or optometrist for treatment that is not identified as being immediately required.
[2] The Government’s mandate to NHS England for 2016-17 issued by Jeremy Hunt specifies “We want people to be empowered to shape and manage their own health and care and make meaningful choices, particularly for maternity services, people with long term conditions and end-of-life care”.
[5] Patients who are detained, and serving members of the armed forces are not entitled to exercise choice.
Spire Healthcare complained to Monitor (NHS) in 2013 that the Clinical Commissioning Groups in Blackpool, and in Fylde and Wyre were not doing enough to encourage patient choice, but their complaint was dismissed in September 2014.
GPs were given financial incentives to use the system [8] Choose and Book was replaced by the NHS e-Referral Service in June 2015.
The 1993 report, Changing Childbirth, called choice, control, and continuity of carer for the mother as the most important tenets of maternity care, but its recommendations were not delivered.
Better Births, the report of the national maternity review recommended that all women should have the choice to give birth where they want, with the support of the same midwife throughout pregnancy, labour and the early weeks of motherhood, with control over a personal maternity care budget of £3,000 to be spent on the NHS care they choose.