'Choose and Book' is the national electronic referral and booking service that has been in operation since 2004. It has helped patients to become more directly involved with decisions about their healthcare, by giving them a system whereby they can choose a provider as well as a date and time for their first outpatient appointment.
Every day over 30 000 patient referrals are making use of the electronic service, enabling patients to make informed choices about their care, a right that is enshrined in the National Health Service (NHS) Constitution.
The National Medical Director for the Choose and Book Programme, Mr. Stephen Miller said: "Patients appreciate greater flexibility in the way they are treated by the NHS and those who have used the system like it. They have the certainty and confidence of knowing where and when they will be seen and have the security of knowing that their referral information remains confidential."
'Choose and Book' is now the standard method of first outpatient referral and is used within every primary care trust and provider organisation across the NHS in England, as well as many independent provider organisations. 'Choose and Book', when used as intended, provides significant benefits for referrers, providers and the wider NHS by delivering quality, certainty, reliability and, increased productivity.
Referrers are able to monitor the progress of their patients through the referral process and provider clinicians have immediate access to all the vital referral information. The detailed information on the 32 000 services available on 'Choose and Book' allows referrers to be confident of the clinical appropriateness of the service they are referring patients into. At the same time, the greater visibility of available services, local and national, effectively creates a shop window to the NHS and supports the increased patient choice.
Stephen Miller added: "Choose and Book provides choice and efficiency for the NHS and for patients. By referring electronically we can help reduce administrative effort across the NHS and realise real benefits. Reaching 20 million patient referrals booked through Choose and Book is a significant milestone for the NHS and has given those patients that have used the system much more certainty and control of their health care, at a very uncertain time in their lives. We continue to work with provider organisations (in both primary and secondary care) to encourage them to place all of their services and appointments on 'Choose and Book', thus ensuring that referrers will always turn to 'Choose and Book' as their standard method of referral."
Note: Crown copyright material reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO.
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Quelle/Source: epractice, 29.04.2010
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