DH releases details of choice at referral policy
- 5 June 2007
The Department of Health has released details of how its choice at referral policy will be extended via Choose and Book over the next nine months until free choice in elective care is introduced in April 2008
The transition towards free choice will begin on 1 July when any provider can add orthopaedic services to the national menu, followed by other specialties.
Providers must be able to meet the 18 week referral to treatment milestones and targets and can only add services that can be directly booked through Choose and Book unless explicit exemption has been received from Connecting for Health.
The opening up of the national menu of choice on Choose and Book follows the decision last year to allow foundation trusts, phase one and two independent sector treatment centres and selected independent sector providers to add additional services to Choose and Book to supplement the contracts with four local providers the primary care trusts are obliged to provide.
The latest guidance says it will be up to GPs to guide patients through the local and national menu options. It adds that primary care trusts (PCTs) can “guide GPs on the affordability of certain treatments that may be available on the national menu in other parts of the country and what the PCT is prepared to fund must be clear to all parties at the point of referral.”
Link
New version of C+B supports ‘extended’ choice
Choice at Referral: Guidance Framework for 2007/8
