DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release (2007/0083) issued by The Government News Network on 11
April 2007
New website will
extend choice to all communities
Patient Choice also supported by trained librarians
Any choice of hospital for hip ops - to start 1yr early Health
Secretary Patricia Hewitt today announced a package of measures to
help patients in the most disadvantaged communities make choices
about their healthcare and empower them to shape services around
their needs and experience.
Patient choice will be accessible for all through a range of new initiatives:
- Launch of a new flagship super website NHS Choices
- Choice Library pilots
- From July a 'free' choice of any hospital provider in
the country for patients needing orthopaedic and hip replacement treatments
At a visit to a library pilot in Wood Green, London, Patricia
Hewitt said:
"We are determined to put patients at the heart of the NHS
and making sure patients can access and share information about
health services is a crucial part of that. Patients will soon be
able to choose, with the click of a button, where they want to
have their treatment. Our new choice website will allow the public
and clinicians to access a range of information through one super
site that will act as a gateway to navigate NHS services.
"Patient choice is about people being in control. Patients
needing a hospital appointment should have the right to pick and
choose their time, date and place. To make this happen, we need to
invest in facilities to help patients take control. Using public
libraries and the internet is an ideal way to support patients,
families and carers with information."
From today, patients or any member of the public in ten areas
across the country will be able to go to their local library and
have trained librarians support them as they choose and book
hospital appointments on-line offering new convenience and flexibility.
NHS Choices will 'go-live' this summer and will empower
patients to access a wide of information:
- Searchable comprehensive directories e.g. on hospitals, GPs and
care homes;
- Comparative data on hospital waiting times, cleanliness and
readmission rates;
- Access to a vast library of approved medical literature,
previously only available to clinicians, to enable a deeper
understanding of conditions & treatment options;
- Easy to understand multi-media guides on the 40 most common
procedures e.g. hip replacement;
- Detailed guides to living with 20 long-term conditions such as
diabetes will help patients manage their condition. Expert
opinions from professionals and patients will provide advice and support;
- Individual and family health risk assessments based on age, sex
and location;
- Information that will help the well to stay fit and assist
those who are unwell to manage their condition;
- 'Magazine' content that will reflect the interests
and needs of different groups such as teenagers, families and
those over 70; and
- Patients will be able to directly comment and feedback on their hospital.
State-of-the art interactive and multi-media technology will
extend choice to the most disadvantaged groups in society and the
website will overcome the digital divide by making information
available in a range of formats. Audio programmes will be
available for streaming to local radio stations, televisual
content will be supplied for burning onto DVDs, and Health
professionals will be able to provide lifestyle information about
healthier living with pamphlets that can be printed off at public
libraries or in the GP surgery.
NHS Choices has received strong backing from clinicians and
patient groups. Dr. Tom Coffey, a GP in South London, and Chair of
the new health network, said:
"I welcome this new website because it will mean that
patients and I will be using the same authoritative clinical
information. It will also give me an instant library of patient
information, which I can use during consultations and provide to patients."
The Health Secretary also announced that from this summer - one
year earlier than expected - patients needing elective treatment
for hip replacements and orthopaedic surgery will be able to
choose any treatment centre right across the country if they meet
NHS standards and costs.
Currently all patients requiring any routine surgery can choose
from four local hospitals, 34 foundation trusts and 15 independent
sector providers. The aim is that from April 2008, patients will
be able to choose from any hospital that meets NHS standards and
costs but, as outlined today, this 'free' choice is
being delivered earlier than expected for some kinds of surgery.
Notes To Editors
1. An invitation to tender for the dedicated choice website was
issued on Monday 22 January. Following a competition between six
companies Dr Foster Intelligence has been awarded to design and
develop the website.
2. List of library pilots:
Library Authority Library Branch Name
Newham Canning Town; The Gate; Plaistow
Bromley Orpington; Chislehurst; West
Wickham
Hackney Shoreditch; Stamford Hill; Hackney
Central
Southwark Dulwich; Peckham; Rotherhithe
Haringey Wood Green Central Library; Marcus
Garvey Library; St. Ann's Library
Waltham Forest Walthamstow; Leytonstone;
Chingford
Greenwich Plumstead; East Greenwich; Eltham
Derbyshire Bolsover; Bakewell; Hayfield plus
mobile libraries with broadband
enabled by satellite.
Gloucestershire Coleford (Forest Of Dean);
Dursley; Tewkesbury.
Suffolk Bury St
Edmunds;
Clare;
Haverhill
3. Partnership for Patients started as a collaboration between
Health Link, a patient organisation operating as a social
enterprise, London Libraries Development Agency the strategic
leadership agency for London's libraries and London Health
Libraries, working together to put into practice what patients
said they needed to make Choice work for them. It grew into a
unique collaboration across three government departments, the
Department of Health, Department for Food, the Environment and
Rural Affairs, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport with
the Museums Libraries and Archives Council, led by Health Link.
This Partnership has set up 10 local 'partnerships for
patients' so that altogether 67 organisations (libraries,
PCTS and hospital Trusts) are working together and pooling
resources for the benefit of patients - powerful local force for
making choice a reality for all patients.
4. Updated patient choice booklets are available from every PCT
and data on the national extended choice network published on http://www.nhs.uk. The booklets will
contain performance data for the Independent Sector (IS) for the
first time as well as more information on patient experience.
[ENDS]
Richmond House 79 Whitehall London SW1A 2NS