The following information is applicable to patients living in England, and being treated in England. No information provided should be taken as formal legal or medical advice.

With waiting times high across the country, there is only so much you can do to improve your healthcare in the NHS. Even so, there are options available to help you access better healthcare quicker. To do so, there are three key steps to consider: understand your rights, consider all options, and keep updated.

1. Understand your rights

To make the best decisions for your healthcare, it is important to be informed. For example, most people are unaware of their rights in the NHS, as set out by the NHS constitution, such as the right to choice.¹ Knowing these rights, you can sometimes choose where you are seen. This can mean faster treatment or access to improved facilities. We have written a number of guides detailing what these rights are and how to use them (accessible here).

2. Consider all options

Having gained an understanding of your rights, if you are eligible to choose where you are seen, you should consider all options open to you. To do so, you can use HealthSay’s search services (link here), which allow you to compare NHS services by wait time, care quality, and other metrics. This step is important, as HealthSay's own research has found that within London alone, wait times for a given treatment can be up to 3x longer depending on what hospital you are seen at.

3. Keep updated

As a consequence of staff shortages and backlogs made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic, waiting times are increasingly long. As such, much can change while you are waiting for your appointment or procedure. It is therefore important to keep up to date with the latest information. You can do this by checking out our articles, guides and search services, which we regularly update. Other useful sources include the BBC’s NHS news and Healthwatch’s news and reports.

Sources:

1. Handbook to the NHS Constitution. Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplements-to-the-nhs-constitution-for-england/the-handbook-to-the-nhs-constitution-for-england