The NHS is changing

The Government is asking for your views on their ambition to give people more choice and control over their own care. Liberating the NHS: Greater Choice and Control and An Information Revolution set out the Government’s plan on how to give people more choice over their care by introducing private and voluntary sector providers, alongside NHS providers in all health services by no later than 2013/14.

There is now an opportunity for you to comment on how you choose care by introducing the private and voluntary sector as providers and how you receive information about your own health and the health services.

Greater Choice and Control
This proposes to increase choice in the following prioritised areas by:

• ensuring that if you have a long term condition you can make choices about your care and are given the confidence to manage your condition
• offering a choice of treatment and provider in mental health services
• improve the choice of end of life care, moving towards a national choice offer in the future to support you if you who wish to die at home

An Information Revolution
This proposes to arm people with comprehensive information on all aspects of their health and social care so they can take control and make informed decisions as follows:

• you will have greater access and control of your health and social care records
• there will be more information generated by patients and service users
• a wider range of providers to analyse and present information to the public will help promote innovation and enable greater tailoring of information to individual needs.