Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has issued guidance to integrated care boards on local commissioning in the context of patients’ legal right to choose under the NHS Choice Framework.

The Government is committed to patients having the right to choose their provider when referred to consultant-led treatment, or to a mental health professional, for their first appointment as an outpatient. Patients’ right to choose is set out in legislation and integrated care boards remain responsible for ensuring their own processes comply with the Right to Choose, including clinical appropriateness, eligibility criteria, and qualifying contract requirements. NHS England has issued national Patient Choice Guidance, available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/patient-choice-guidance/

This sets out an overview of the choices available to patients and the rules that underpin those rights. The guidance explains how commissioners can meet their statutory duties in relation to patient choice, supports greater consistency in the application of those rights across the National Health Service, and describes how NHS England manages enquiries and complaints relating to patient choice. NHS England has also published, as part of its Enforcement Guidance, further material explaining how it exercises its enforcement powers in relation to patient choice. Further information on the choices available for patients can be found on the NHS Choice framework, available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-choice-framework