GPs to give patients choice of where to get healthcare under government plans - including private clinics

GPs will soon be required to give patients a choice of where to receive healthcare under plans announced by the Prime Minister - including private alternatives. Doctors will have to offer a choice of up to five healthcare providers when clinically appropriate, in a move designed to cut NHS waiting times.

Delays and backlogs for NHS patients have soared in recent years. In a move announced by Rishi Sunak today (May 25), patients will be able to select where they wish to be treated using the NHS app or website, including private clinics and healthcare providers which are further away.

Mr Sunak said: "Our aim is to create an NHS built around patients, where everyone has more control over the care they receive, wherever they live or whatever their health needs are." NHS patients already have the right to choose where they receive treatment.

READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community

But this new policy, outlined in a letter published today, means doctors will be required to list alternatives to patients. Only one in 10 patients currently exercise the right to choose where they receive treatment.

Yet research shows the choice can cut three months off waiting times, according to the Department of Health and Social Care, which hopes more people will take up the offer in future. Mr Sunak, who has made cutting NHS waiting lists one of his five priorities, has previously backed the private sector playing a greater role in the health service.

Announcing the new policy, he said 'empowering' patients to have a 'real choice' over where they receive treatment will help cut waiting lists. Royal College of GPs chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said making better use of technology and giving patients more