Doctors condemn “patient choice” initiative as no real choice at all

BMA conference delegates condemned the government's initiative to increase patients' choice as failing to deliver real choice to patients and voted overwhelmingly against the expansion of private treatment centres, which they said were draining resources from NHS hospitals.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, a GP in north London, proposed two motions at the BMA's annual representatives' conference in Llandudno this week questioning the value of the initiative and private treatment centres.

He called the government's plan to give patients a choice of four or five centres in which to have their operation a “political gimmick” that failed to deliver what patients wanted from the health …