The College of Optometrists

A cataract direct referral scheme is about to start in my area. We are also to offer Choice to patinets at the time of referral.

The local ophthalmologists are concerned about Choice - they have seen referrals to their department from an adjacent PCT area fall after Choice was introduced at the start of this year. They are interested to know what sort of question patients ask when tod that they have a degree of choice about where to be referred. I suppose I expect to be asked about waiting times and very probably about which surgeons I would choose for myself r my family.

Are there particular questions which come up a lot? What do you feel is the most important factors from a patient's viewpoint?

In my experience the ONLY thing patients are interested in is convenience.

They rarely ask about quality of outcomes and waiting times are more or less standardised now at 3 months.

They always ask about transport and parking and how easy it is to get to the hospital.

John is right, patients mostly assume surgical quality is standard across the board and the waiting time for an operation should now be below three months from listing at all Hospitals in England.

The Choice booklets I have seen promoting local Trusts have concentrated on things like quality of food and parking. All the vast majority of patients want is a local service if access times are similar.

I think it is unlikely we will see an informed choice based on surgical outcomes, complication rates etc. in the near future.

One of the hospitals our area has as achoice we have yet to work out where it is! so most Px don't go there! Basically they already have decided where they want to go before choice is offered and the offer is as much a matter of form as anything. But yes convenience of access is the major factor.

I would think that it will be swings and roundabouts for numbers, as given choice some patients will go to the place GP wouldn't have sent them, but others will go the other way... if you see what I mean