Two consultations following DH white paper

The Department of Health (DH) has launched two consultations following the publication of its White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, which sets out the government’s objective to give patients more control over the medical care they receive.

Responses to the consultations, Liberating the NHS: An Information Revolution and Liberating the NHS: Greater Choice and Control, will be used to develop a system where patients have more say in the care they receive and the information they have access to about their health.

Liberating the NHS: Greater Choice and Control will seek views on allowing patients more options in: 

• Deciding which healthcare service provides a diagnosis
• Selecting the course of treatment they receive after being diagnosed
• Choosing which medical team, led by a named consultant, that they want to be seen by
• Any pre-conception, antenatal, and postnatal care they receive
• Selecting a mental health services provider and course of treatment
• Their end of life care.

Liberating the NHS: An Information Revolution will ask for responses on proposals to provide patients with comprehensive information and data on all aspects of their health and adult social care. The DH launched this consultation as it believes that giving people more control over their care records will improve the quality of care provided, as more data will be available on issues such as mixed-sex wards and infection rates.

Both consultations will close on 14 January 2011.