UKH

A family member has been referred to a particular service for a particular diagnosis that we now know has a 2 year waiting list. I want to know if that can be done quicker by another NHS service and mentioned that in a chat with the service we're currently on board with. Their response was "fine, you have the right to choose, we'd discharge them back to the GP so you can pursue that if that's what you want to do". But all I want to know is if this diagnosis could be done quicker elsewhere. 2 years might well be the shortest waiting time so we don't want to lose our place on that waiting list while we investigate other options.

Have I misunderstood how Right to Choose is supposed to work?

Ask your GP.. They should know what options there are and what waiting lists are.. stay on the specialist list until you have a better option. 

Speaking to the hospital’s PALS service is probably your first port of call.

I think the service are wrong in what they have told you. If the waiting time breaches the NHS’s maximum waits for that condition (usually 18 weeks for non urgent care) then I believe it is that hospital or the ICBs responsibility to investigate and offer a transfer to a service that isn’t breaching wait times, if possible. 

Discharge to your GP would be appropriate if you were saying you wanted a specific consultant or hospital for another reason, not because the hospital is breaching waiting times.

https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-the-nhs/your-choices-in-the-nhs/

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/hospitals/guide-to-nhs-waiting-times-in-eng...

I've tried that. The GP says it's up to the service we've been referred to to look into whether or not another provider would be quicker. Is the GP wrong?

Thanks. I'd not heard of PALS. I'll try them next

I got referred out of area for a specialist treatment and my GP warned me that I would no longer be subject to waiting list targets if I came off the list at my local hospital.