GPs will have to offer patients options to travel further or go private to cut NHS wait times

GPs will be required to give patients the option to travel further for healthcare or go to a private alternative under plans to tackle NHS waiting times.

Doctors must offer patients up to five healthcare providers when making referrals, allowing people to select their preference using the NHS app or website.

The options can be filtered by distance, waiting times and the quality of care in the expansion of the app, which was downloaded by millions during the Covid pandemic. Patients already have a right to choose where they go, but it is hoped that by requiring doctors to give alternatives it will increase usage.

At the moment, only one in 10 patients exercise this right but being given the choice can cut as much as three months off waiting times, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

Patients will not have to pay for treatment, with the NHS covering any private healthcare provider chosen, but low-income patients could receive help with travel costs under an existing scheme.

The Prime Minister, who has vowed to cut NHS waiting lists after making it one his five key priorities, has previously backed the private sector playing a greater role in the NHS. He said the new policy will be “empowering” for patients, as people will have a “real choice” over where they receive treatment.

He explained: “Our aim is to create an NHS built around patients, where everyone has more control over the care they receive, wherever they live or whatever their health needs are.”

It comes after Sunak’s battle to cut NHS waiting lists suffered a blow last month as official estimates suggest 7.22 million people were waiting to start routine hospital treatment – the highest total since records began in 2007.

The changes should also help benefit existing patients as from October, those who have waited more than 40 weeks for an appointment, or are awaiting a treatment date, will be asked whether they want to switch hospitals.

Royal College of GPs chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said making better use of technology and giving patients more choice are moves “worth exploring”, but warned the concept of giving patients choice over where to access care “is not new”.

She said: “Similar initiatives have been tried, with mixed success, so it’s important that lessons are learned from these to ensure new iterations are intuitive for patients and don’t end up adding to workload in general practice, at a time when we need bureaucratic burdens to be cut.

“We also need to be realistic with our patients, given current NHS backlogs, as to what is possible – particularly in terms of waiting times for treatment – so that this new system does not create false expectations.”

Dr Kieran Sharrock, who is chairing BMA England’s GP committee, cautioned there are “no shortcuts” and said the “long-term undervaluing” of NHS staff and poor workforce planning need to be addressed to reduce record waiting lists.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has insisted the new policies could help “wipe months off” waiting times, while Labour shadow Wes Streeting said it was “laughable” that the government’s “big idea to get waiting lists down is to give patients a choice that they already have”.

The policy was also criticised by opposition the Liberal Democrats, with the party’s health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper stating: “Rishi Sunak is failing on his pledges to cut NHS waiting lists, recruit the NHS staff we need, and fix crumbling hospitals.

“This latest gimmick will do nothing to change the fact that under the Conservatives, far too many patients are waiting far too long for the treatment they need.”