NHS Choices website launched

The Department of Health has launched the new NHS Choices website, replacing the previous NHS.uk website.

The new website, which stays at the same http://www.nhs.uk web address, aims to personalise healthcare and provide information that will ‘allow patients to make meaningful choices about when and where to receive their treatment.’

The new website goes under the slogan ‘your health, your choices’ and has been designed to provide ‘an information service fit for the 21st century.’

NHS Choices is intended to allow patients to access NHS approved information under four different headings:

• Living Well – providing information to help people stay fit and manage their health;
• Health A-Z – providing a library of approved medical literature;
• Choose Services – full authoritative and comparative data on standards and availability of services with quality scorecards for all services;
• Your Thoughts- where patients are invited to comment an feedback on NHS services.

The website was launched by the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, who said it was the boost patients needed to exercise their right to choice.

“NHS Choices puts patients in the driving seat – giving them access to information not previously available to them so they can make informed decisions from advice about healthy eating to identifying the right hospital for their treatment.

“The site will also enable health providers to form different partnerships with patients. Providers will be able to communicate directly with the public online and allowing patients to compare hospitals will encourage clinicians and managers to improve their performance.”

Unlike the previous listings facility on NHS.uk, NHS Choices will allow trusts to highlight further information about their sites on the website itself. This will include details on specific services, facilities, hospital accommodation and initiatives such as their range of emergency services, and provision of faith-based counselling services.

The website will aim to provide enhanced awareness of comparative information, with richer data on waiting times, length of stay and number of patients treated readily available from all hospitals in a specific area.

Comparative information on readmission rates in different hospitals will also be freely available, which the DH hopes will drive up efficiency and increase cost competitiveness.

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, a cardiac surgeon from University College London and chair of the NHS Choices Clinical Advisory Group, said: “By providing patients with better information you create a spiral that starts with informed healthcare decisions and leads ultimately to the provision of a better service. I welcome the publication of clinical performance measures as it is instrumental to this process.

“This kind of information makes for a better consultation. As a surgeon, there is nothing more fulfilling than a two-way consultation with an informed patient who seeks additional detail to reach a better understanding and decision on their treatment, whether that leads to surgery or not.”

The site went live on 19 June and the DH says it will continue to evolve with significant extensions scheduled for later in the year. Data on primary care services information will be available from next year.

NHS Choices has been designed by ‘drawing on the combined experience and expertise of NHS.uk, NHS Direct, the National Electronic Library for Health, and the Healthcare Commission.

Harry Cayton, national director of patients and the public said: “The provision of easy-to-use comparative hospital data is welcomed and in time will switch the balance of power away from hospitals and towards the people who use them.”

The website will also be made available to the public at hundreds of pharmacies across the country.

Hewitt added: “Health advice is the second most popular subject on the web. Consequently there is a bewildering array of information online often of varying quality that can be confusing or in the worst cases dangerous. With the launch of NHS Choices that will change – patients and providers will now have access to the best, most reliable information on health.”

Tom Coffey, a South London GP, said: “Patients are increasingly arriving at my surgery with information about conditions that they have found through a search of the internet. This information is often out of date and invalid. By giving patients access to validated, evidence-based information that was previously only available to clinicians, GPs can have a more informed discussion with their patients.”

Similar information types are also being made available to patients on the independent Patient Opinion site, which last week went nationwide.

Links

NHS Choices