Plan to ‘shop’ for treatment online in drive to tackle record backlog
NHS will ‘give the power back to the patient’ with scheme to book operations anywhere in the country
PATIENTS whose operations have been delayed by the pandemic will be able to “shop” online for hospitals with the shortest waiting lists, under a new NHS plan.
Health officials are preparing to launch a national initiative called “my planned care” to tackle a record of six million people waiting for treatment.
Ministers are preparing to announce plans for millions more rapid diagnostic tests, at hospitals, shops, and community centres, to speed up access to care.
Under the schemes, patients referred for hospital care would be able to look up the waiting time at their local hospital, and compare them with times at any hospital in the country.
The website will allow patients to book their treatment directly at any hospital. There are plans for future access via the NHS app.
It comes alongside efforts to radically overhaul the system of hospital appointments, with patients put in direct contact with medical teams, so they can ask questions and request checks, instead of automatically being assigned followup consultations.
Sir Jim Mackey, a hospital chief executive, who has been appointed to advise NHS England on tackling the backlog, said such initiatives would “give the power back to the patient”.
The changes are set to replace systems of NHS “e-referral” which are supposed to offer such a choice, but do not provide patients with basic information such as the length of wait they are facing. Sir Jim, who is the chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said it was “fundamentally wrong” that patients were given so little information, including on waiting times, after being referred to hospital.
“There is no interaction that gives them confidence of where they are in the queue and what’s going to happen next,” he told a recent seminar.
It follows the appointment of a former banker as chairman of the NHS, with plans for a “radical shake up” of the way services are run.
Officials said Richard Meddings, a former chairman of TSB, who held a role on the board of the Treasury, and will take up post next month, had “led reform and change at the highest level”.
Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, is working on an NHS Reform White Paper, to turn around failing organisations, and that could result in “super hospitals’ merging different groups.
With record investment in the NHS, including a £12billion injection funded by a rise in National Insurance, Mr Javid, a former chancellor, has vowed to be “watchful for any waste or wokery” in the way resources are spent.