Delivering patient choice in English acute hospital trusts

Abstract

The role of the patient within the NHS has changed from supplicant to consumer to active participant. A demand-side patient-led approach is combining quasi-consumerism and participative democracy to inform and facilitate patient choice. On the supply-side funding and incentives coupled to reform and performance will deliver additional hospital capacity and patient choice. This paper argues from both a demand and supply-side perspective that there is a large gap between the rhetoric and reality of delivering patient choice in acute hospitals.