Published 2 February 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b396
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b396

Letters

Choose and book update

Patients’ attendance at clinics is worse with choose and book

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In 2006 Wood described how the choose and book appointment system had been imposed with detrimental effects.¹ It was intended to improve attendance at clinics, patients choosing the hospital and the time and date of appointment.

We have found that attendance in clinics is worse with choose and book than with traditional general practitioner referrals. In a pilot study at our hospital we observed a significant difference of 18% (choose and book) v 12% (general practitioner) for non-attendance in clinics (²=9.6, df=1, P=0.002). According to a recent study, most patients are not experiencing a significant choice in appointment time, date, or hospital.²

Choose and book has failed to achieve its main goal of improving patients’ satisfaction and attendance. Moreover, it creates an unnecessary economic burden on the health system and jeopardises the prioritisation process by removing clinicians from the process.

Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b396

¹ Department of Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgery, University Hospital Lewisham, London SE13 6UF

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Competing interests: None declared.

1. Wood J. Patients get four choices for NHS treatments: Choose and book will hinder development of good outpatient services. BMJ 2006;332:180.[Free Full Text]
2. Green J, McDowall Z, Potts WWH. Does Choose and Book fail to deliver the expected choice of patients? A survey of patients’ experience of outpatient appointment booking. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 2008;8:36.[CrossRef]

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