Alternative Patient Choice
The NHS has been working hard to address the backlogs built up during the COVID pandemic. As part of these plans, the NHS will be proactively contacting patients who have been waiting a long time for NHS funded treatment to remind them of their right to request to move to an alternative hospital where they may be seen quicker.
If you are a patient who has been waiting more than 40 weeks for your first outpatient appointment or a scheduled date for surgery with us, you could now be eligible for Alternative Patient Choice.
Over the next weeks, starting from 31 October 2023, patients who have been waiting the longest will receive either a text message, email or letter from their hospital. This message will ask if you would like to consider moving your care to a different hospital, initially within the Humber and North Yorkshire area, if it means you are able to receive an appointment more quickly.
You do not need to contact the hospital to make enquiries; if you become eligible for the scheme, they will be in touch with more information and details of how to express an interest in moving hospitals.
There is, of course, no obligation to move your care. If you don’t take up the offer, you will simply stay in your current place on their waiting list and the hospital will offer you an appointment date just as soon as possible.
If you received a message saying you might be eligible and want to know more or think this could be right for you, you’ll be asked to register your details and say how far you would be willing to travel on the NHS website. Someone will then be in touch to let you know what happens next and which other hospitals in our region, if any, could see you more quickly. Full details on how to register will be provided through your letter, email or text message.
Alternative Patient Choice will not be suitable for everyone. Some exclusions apply (e.g. patients waiting for neurosurgery or cardiac care and the under 18s). It is important to be aware that, if you choose to be seen by a different hospital for a particular problem, all your care and future appointments related to that problem will also take place at the other hospital; care cannot be transferred back to us once you’ve received your appointment or treatment.
Patients are asked not to contact the hospital or their GP practice regarding this scheme, the hospital will contact you if you are eligible.
More information about alternative choice is available on hospital websites:
Alternative Patient Choice – Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Waiting for treatment – Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (nlg.nhs.uk)
View the Alternative Patient Choice FAQs