Greater Choice & Control

Greater Choice and Control is the latest in a number of consultations stemming from the Health White Paper

The proposals envisage a presumption of greater choice and control over care and treatment, choice of any willing healthcare provider, wherever relevant and choice of treatment and healthcare provider becoming the reality in the vast majority of NHS-funded services by no later than 2013/14. The proposals explore what extending choice could mean and how it could work in practice, using case studies to show what choice could look like. It also asks for views on whether the proposed choices are the ones that people would want.
 
The consultation proposes that choice and shared decision-making ought to be the rule not the exception and should be built into health professionals’ everyday practice and asks how the choices that people make should be safe and sustainable. Finally, it asks what information, support and infrastructure needs to be in place to achieve the vision of informed, empowered patients making choices over the things that matter to them.
 
View the original consultation: www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_119651
 
Download the College’s response to Greater Choice and Control