Choose and Book usage rises to 54 per cent
- 29 March 2009
Choose and Book is now being used for 54% of referrals for first outpatient appointments according to Connecting for Health.
Dr Stephen Miller, Choose and Book medical director, said the Department of Health’s outturn figures for January showed a “significant rise” in use of the e-booking system.
He said it was impossible to know how many hospitals and GP practices were using the system as intended instead of using workarounds, such as the one used by the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust which last week admitted to inputting referrals manually to improve its Choose and Book performance.
But Dr Miller said figures showed a correlation between awareness of choice and use of Choose and Book with the top ten performing PCTs on choice collectively using Choose and Book for 74% of referrals compared to a 41% figure for use of Choose and Book by the worst performing ten PCTs on choice.
