The health secretary, John Reid, intends to set up teams of patient advisers, based in GP surgeries, to ensure that every patient—not just the better informed ones—are able to exercise choice in their treatment.
Although the exact details of the scheme have yet to be finalised, a Department of Health spokesperson said the advice could be provided either by practice nurses at individual surgeries, or through a telephone helpline provided by each primary care trust.
Just four months into post, Mr Reid is keen to promote patient choice—about where patients have their operations, for example—as a key plank in his NHS reform agenda. He recently announced plans that would enable all patients to have their hospital appointments booked online, direct from the GP surgery, by 2005. Information technology consultants SchlumbergerSema have just won the £64.5m ($107.4m; €91.2m) contract for the electronic booking service for the NHS.
Speaking in an interview to the BMJ (see p 890) Mr Reid acknowledged that not all patients would be well enough informed to make choices about their health care.
“We need to recognise that not everyone has the same social capital. Some people know the system, some people are educated, some people are confident, some are articulate. To make the choice meaningful you need to have patient advisers who will help people through the choices. You need to perhaps allow a day for them to go back and reflect.
“We fully intend to be bringing in patient advisers to help those people who perhaps are less confident or know the system less well. We are trying to make sure that in every surgery we develop people who will be advising patients.”