Search results for: "label/nhs"

Waiting times and health checkson the NHS

2 January 2010 //
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The NHS consti­tu­tion has been around since January 2009.

It’s a promise from the NHS to you that they will look after you prop­erly, and that you have a right to be looked after well when you need to use NHS services like hospitals, doctors and dentists.

It’s taken a while to get there, but from January 2010 all the different organ­isa­tions that make up the NHS will have to pay special atten­tion to what it says when they make their decisions about how you’re going to get medical care.

The NHS Constitution gives you the right to:

  • free health­care, except what the govern­ment says you should pay
  • high stand­ards when you need advice or treatment
  • access medi­cines, as long as they’ve been prop­erly approved
  • fair and equal treat­ment, no favouritism
  • refuse treat­ment if you want
  • under­stand what your options are
  • choose who you want to be your doctor
  • have a say in the treat­ment and care you get

The govern­ment says it’s ready to add some more rights for you.

The right to not wait longer than 18 weeks for the medical care you need, and only 2 weeks if the doctor thinks you might have cancer. You may still need to wait longer if it’s important to wait for the good of your health.

You would have this right from April 2010.

The govern­ment doesn’t want this to be an excuse for people to sue the NHS whenever the waiting time goes over the limit. Instead they want it to be a way for people who’ve waited too long to get seen as quickly as possible.

If you do end up waiting too long, without agreeing it with your doctor first, then when you tell the NHS about it they will legally have to get you the appoint­ment you need, or find another way.

This doesn’t apply if you miss your appoint­ments, though. It’s your respons­ib­ility to make sure you turn up or cancel them in plenty of time if you can’t get to them.

Understanding waiting times

  • The govern­ment wants to help you under­stand how long you should expect getting treat­ment to take, and they’re thinking about giving out treat­ment plans so you can under­stand what you have to do.
  • They’re also worried that in urgent cases like cancer, although doctors might have a very good reason for not explaining that you need to see a specialist quickly, so you get less stressed and worried by it, this some­times means that people put off their appoint­ments, which could be dangerous.
  • The govern­ment says that if there’s a major national or local problem, for example a flu pandemic, NHS services would be allowed to have longer waiting times.

If you’re over 40 years old but younger than 75, you would get the right to a health check every five years. This health check would test you for common prob­lems – heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease and more.


Everyone would have this right from April 2012.

As part of the check, the doctor or nurse who give you the check would also help you with things like keeping healthy, how to get to and keep to the right weight, and how to stop smoking as all these things help make you less likely to get the diseases they’re checking for.

They’ll also be able to sort you out with medical treat­ments like statins, which help lower cholesterol.

The govern­ment also wants to talk about what rights they should be thinking about for the future.

  • In the government’s last survey, a lot of people thought that being tied to a GP surgery because you live in a partic­ular area wasn’t very useful, so the govern­ment is already getting rid of that.
  • People also thought that if doctor’s surgeries opened on even­ings and week­ends then life would be much easier for them. The govern­ment wants to think about making this part of the NHS constitution.
  • The NHS thinks it can give everyone access to an NHS dentist by March 2011. When they hit that target, the govern­ment wants to think about putting it in the NHS constitution.
  • There are a few pilot schemes around where people just like you are being given the money to get the care they want. When these pilot schemes have finished and the govern­ment has seen the results, they’ll look at putting it in the NHS constitution.
  • When you’re at the end of your life, you might want to spend that time at home instead of in a hospital. There’s lots of things to sort out about how the NHS helps people cope with death before we get to this, but the govern­ment hopes they’ll be in the right place to look at it by 2013.
  • The govern­ment also says that in 2011 and 2012 they want to set a new standard of a week (maximum two weeks) so you can get cancer tests and results done more quickly.
  • They also want every region in England to have a Constitution Champion who can help make hospitals and surgeries ready for ques­tions about the consti­tu­tion and patient rights, and who knows the consti­tu­tion inside out so they can help patients under­stand their rights and responsibilities.

That’s great / really good / really bad / could do with improve­ment – but what can I do about it?


Get your ideas, comments, ques­tions and obser­va­tions to the Department of Health by 5 February 2010:

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Are we getting our money’s worth from health tourism?

12 April 2010 //
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At the moment, if you don’t live in the UK, and you come here and get treated at an NHS hospital, some­times you’re supposed to pay for it.

You can get registered at a GP surgery, you don’t have to pay for emer­gency treat­ment, and for urgent things like giving birth you will be treated without having to pay upfront. We’ve got some agree­ments with other coun­tries in Europe giving some people free or cheaper emer­gency health care in return for the same for British citizens, and in Scotland the rules are slightly different again. But for nearly everything else, you’re supposed to pay.

The trouble is that some people just don’t pay. The NHS does their best to chase these health tour­ists up for the money, but there’s a lot they don’t get back.

They govern­ment thinks these things will help:

A central database

  • A central data­base of people who owe money over a certain amount. This would be separate from their medical and other confid­en­tial data. 
  • They want people who owe either over £500 of debt (2 nights in hospital with 24 hour care), or over £1,000 (4 nights in hospital, not counting care) to be on this database.
  • The NHS would be respons­ible for making sure the data­base was kept up to date. We want them to wait either 1, 2 or 3 months before reporting the debt – what do you think?

Easy ways to pay off debt

  • People to be able to pay their debts using the NHS 24 hour service in England and during hospital working hours in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
  • The NHS wants us to look at health insur­ance options for people coming from abroad.

More hold over people who have NHS debts

  • People should have to settle any NHS debts before they apply to come to the UK again.
  • If they don’t, that should be a reason to stop them coming to the UK.
  • If someone already has permis­sion to come to the UK, but they owe the NHS money, we should be able to stop them coming back.
  • If someone is applying to be a British citizen, if they owe the NHS any money that should be taken into account.
  • Normal rules mean that asylum seekers and other people who’ve had a hard time getting here, like traf­ficked people, or if you’ve been refused asylum but can’t go home, then you don’t usually have to pay. Children who come to this country without parents or guard­ians are looked after by a lot of rules and NHS treat­ment is free, though if they’re here with a parent or guardian they’ll have to pay for them. Do we need to do anything more for chil­dren and vulner­able people? Or maybe we need to do things differently?

Let the govern­ment know why you think any, all or none of these things will work.

They also want to know if you think these new rules will make things worse for any people in partic­ular (for example preg­nant women, or older people), and how they could avoid doing that.

  • Email your thoughts
  • Fill in the online survey
  • Post your answers to:
    UK Border Agency
    CPU Consultations
    PO Box 90
    Postal Account 23
    M90 3RR
You’ve got until 30 June 2010 to get your answers in. Good luck!
From the UK Border Agency consulta­tion Refusing entry or stay to NHS debtors.
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The new NHS: a patient’s point of view

27 July 2010 //
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The govern­ment has put out a paper on what they want the NHS to look like in the future. Here’s a summary of things you might like to know about what they’re claiming will happen, from a patient’s point of view.

  • It will still be free! That’s not going to change.
  • You’ll be able to have any GP you want. But keep in mind that if a lot of people pick one GP, it’ll prob­ably be more diffi­cult to get an appointment!
  • The NHS has to be very careful about money, and when they find a cheaper way to do things this could mean some changes to who you’re looked after by, how you’re looked after, where and when. Anyone who treats and care for patients will need a licence to make sure they’re safe and good quality, and you should be able to move smoothly from your old service to a new one.Your doctor should talk you through any changes.
  • When you need help or treat­ment your doctor can’t provide them­selves, they’ll give you more choice over what happens to you next. Doctors already offer some choices, but there’ll be a lot more around by April 2011. In return though, you’ll have to take respons­ib­ility for going to your appoint­ments and keeping up with treatments.
  • Local doctors and medical staff, the people who see you all the time, should have a lot more say in the treat­ments avail­able in your area.
  • Your doctors won’t be working towards targets so much anymore, they’ll be rewarded for high stand­ards more instead. This might mean you have to wait longer for some things, but it should mean you get better care too.
  • You, your family and carers should be asked how you feel about your treat­ment more often, this will be an important way for medical staff to tell whether they’re doing well.
  • Starting with your GP records, you should have more access to what’s written down about you. The govern­ment will also look at what records need to be kept exactly.
  • They want to give patients better access to research studies, drug and treat­ment trials.
  • They want all day, every day access to urgent medical help, including a GP service that works outside normal working hours.
  • You’ll have a local place for you to go, called HealthWatch, if you need help making decisions about your treat­ment, or need support with a complaint.
  • If you use social care services, your local authority will be respons­ible for making sure things run smoothly and the NHS and your carers are talking to each other prop­erly. They’ll look after what goes on locally to help people improve their general health, and along with doctors, they’ll also have a say about what services your local area pays for.
  • They govern­ment knows they’re not there yet with long-term care and support, so if you have a chronic or long term illness there’s more to come by the end of 2010.
  • And finally, they want people to be able to do more online, including talking to their doctors. They’ll release more on this by the end of 2010.

If you notice any glaring errors in this list, please leave a comment or email me! And if you want to give any feed­back to the govern­ment about their plans, what you think about them and what the best way to do them would be based on your exper­i­ences, email nhswhitepaper@dh.gsi.gov.uk by 5 October 2010.

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