App will let patients avoid long NHS waits

Patients will be able to use the NHS app to shop around for hospitals with the shortest waiting lists in a renewed drive to cut backlogs for routine care.

Health bosses agreed yesterday to give patients more choice over where they are treated by next April in an effort to use digital league tables to direct people towards hospitals with the shortest waits.

Steve Barclay, the health secretary, wants to give patients “real-time data” on their phones to decide whether to travel further to get quicker treatment for hip replacements, cataract removals and other non-urgent procedures.

A government source said: “We don’t need a big bureaucracy to funnel patients towards the hospital which NHS managers decide is best, when, armed with a right to choose and the right information on the app, patients will go where waiting times are lowest.”

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Source: The Times (31 August 2022)