NHS chief executives call for an extension of patient choice
pharmafile | June 28, 2005 | News story | |Â Â Â
An overwhelming majority of NHS chief executives believe patient choice should be extended to treatment as well as service providers, according to a poll by the NHS Confederation.
Figures show that 85% of chief executives believe the government's choice agenda should be radically extended to allow patients actual choice of treatment and not just choice of hospital.
The proposal was spelled out after the Confederation quizzed 113 NHS chief executives from PCTs, strategic health authorities and foundation trusts in England on a number of key issues facing the NHS.
Dame Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, representing NHS organisations in the UK, said: '"We want choice to mean choice. Selecting which building you have an operation in is one small part of the picture. But on choice, we are calling on the Government to be more imaginative with their policies. If we are serious about putting patients first, let's start with this.
The poll also found that a majority of NHS chiefs think the government's targets and improvements cannot be reached on current levels of funding.
Asked if the government can deliver its targets up to 2008, 62% of chief executives replied negatively, a blow to the government's much-trumpeted plans to extend patient choice for operations by up to 40 providers by 2008.
Figures also show that around a third of chief executives do not believe extending patient choice will improve the quality of care to patients while 84% believe that reducing NHS funding after 2008 will have a negative impact on patient care.
Patient choice may be high on the agenda of NHS chief executives but it carries less weight with the public, according to a poll carried out by the British Medical Association.
Asked how the government might spend money on improving the NHS, the public opted for cleaner hospitals as a top priority while choice of providers for operations ranked bottom of a list of ten.
