Website 'to offer surgery choice'

The health secretary wants patients to know how hospitals perform

The government has announced that a website is to be set up this year to give patients more choice over the hospitals they use for some surgery.

It will contain information and links to help people decide on which centre might suit them best.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said patients should be given as much detail as possible about what hospitals offer.

She also said choice was a good incentive for hospitals to improve their care and "welcome".

Ms Hewitt said patients wanting elective surgery, such as a hip replacement, would be able to choose from 200 hospitals from July.

Larger choice

This is an increase from four local hospitals, 34 foundation trusts and 15 independent providers which they can currently choose from.

By the end of 2008, patients will be able to choose from any hospital which meets NHS standards and costs, she said.

The website, due to be running by summer, would gather together information about hospitals from various sources into one site, she said.

She said the aim was to give patients more choice, rather than to increase competitiveness between hospitals.

Steps to improve

"Any hospital that is given its patients good quality care, really responding to what they want, making sure for instance that they are getting hospital infection rates down, won't have any difficulty at all ensuring that the patients come to them," Ms Hewitt told the BBC.

She added that while many patients felt clinical care was "wonderful", they criticised a lack of information and poor food, with little time for staff to talk to them.

"Now, those things are also important, and what we're seeing is that hospitals who know that patients have got more choice now than they had in the past are taking much more care to find out what patients really think about every aspect of the care the hospital's offering.

"Where patients aren't fully satisfied, they're taking steps to improve it," she said.