Patients in England referred by their GP don't know they can pick a hospital with a shorter wait.
Patients referred by their GP for hospital treatment
Where it stands
- Sourced (done)
- Kit (done)
- Wanted (next)
- Building
- Solved
How this problem came to be
- Found2 sourceshealthwatch.co.uk, england.nhs.uk
- Quoted4 claimseach checked against its page
- BriefWrittenand what solved looks like
- Market2 signals31% of people
- Kit5 steps23 tools · 6 routes
- People0 want0 live it · 0 would test
The problem, broken down
- Who it hurts
- People being referred for specialist care, who have a legal right to choose where they are treated.
- The moment
- The GP appointment where a referral is made, and the weeks afterwards while waiting for a first hospital letter.
- What people do today
- Most people are not offered a choice, and many don't know they have one. They wait for whichever hospital the referral goes to.
- Why it's unsolved
- Waiting-time data is published by trust and specialty, but not in a form a patient can read in a GP appointment or compare for their own postcode.
- What solved looks like
- A patient types a postcode and a specialty and sees nearby NHS hospitals ranked by current typical wait, with a printable note explaining their right to choose that they can bring to the GP or use to ask for a change.
Evidence
Every claim is tied to the source it comes from- 1Only 31% of people referred by their GP for specialist care said they had been offered a choice of hospital.
- 2Only 34% said they knew about their right to choose before their appointment.
- 3The waiting list stood at 7.3 million pathways at the end of June 2026, with about 6.2 million unique patients.
- 4In 65.8% of cases the patient had been waiting up to 18 weeks, short of the 92% standard.
Builders still need to know
Written from the cited sources. Anything they don't say is left as a question, not a guess.
Sources
From a public page with a citation.
- [1]Healthwatch England: Our response to GP Patient Survey 2026 (July 2026)
- [2]NHS England: Referral to treatment waiting times, June 2026 press notice
What the source says, in short
Only 31% of people referred by their GP for specialist care said they had been offered a choice of hospital. Only 34% said they knew about their right to choose before their appointment. The waiting list stood at 7.3 million pathways at the end of June 2026, with about 6.2 million unique patients. In 65.8% of cases the patient had been waiting up to 18 weeks, short of the 92% standard.
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How big this is, from the evidence
- Healthwatch England: Our response to GP Patient Survey 2026 (July 2026) ↗Who it touches · High confidence31% of people“Only 31% of people referred by their GP for specialist care said they had been offered a choice of hospital.”
- NHS England: Referral to treatment waiting times, June 2026 press notice ↗Who it touches · High confidence6.2 million unique patients“The waiting list stood at 7.3 million pathways at the end of June 2026, with about 6.2 million unique patients.”
How these were measured: A figure quoted in the problem's evidence, checked against its source when the brief was written.
For whoever takes this up
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