NHS Choices - delivering for the NHS

NHS Choices: delivering for the NHS
NHS Choices:
delivering for
the NHS

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Policy Estates
HR/Workforce Commissioning
Management IMT
Planning Finance
Clinical Social care/Partnership working
Document purpose For information
ROCR Ref Gateway ref 9432
Title NHS Choices: Delivering for the NHS
Author NHS Choices
Publication date April 8 2008
Target audience PCT CEs, NHS trust CEs, SHA CEs, care trust
CEs, foundation trust CEs, medical directors,
directors of PH, directors of nursing, local
authority CEs, directors of adult SSs, PCT PEC
chairs, NHS trust board chairs, special HA CEs,
directors of HR, directors of finance, Allied
Health professionals, GPs, communication leads,
emergency care leads, directors of children’s SSs
Circulation list –
Description A document describing the vision for the NHS
Choices service
Cross ref N/A
Superseded docs N/A
Action required N/A
Timings N/A
Contact details External Affairs Team
NHS Choices
4th floor
Skipton House
80 London Road
SE1 6LH
Email: thechoicesteam@nhschoices.nhs.uk
Website: www.nhs.uk

NHS Choices: delivering for the NHS Find NHS Choices at www.nhs.uk
Foreword
From April people can now choose
any hospital in the NHS or independent
sector for their treatment.
People should also be free to choose
their GP.
NHS Choices already provides an
unprecedented wealth of information
on the health and social care system.
This vision describes how NHS Choices
will change over the next months
and years to give people much more
information to help them make
decisions about their care.
For example, people will, for the first
time, be able to compare the mortality
rates at individual hospitals and the
performance of individual surgeons.
They will be able to compare the
opening hours and performance of GPs.
This heralds a major shift in the balance
of power in health and social care to
the patient.
I hope you find it useful and I would
welcome any suggestions on how we
can improve NHS Choices further.
Ben Bradshaw
Minister of state for health services
Information and choice are indispensable if we
are to achieve a truly patient-centred NHS in which
standards and quality are constantly improved.
The public who pay for the health service have a
right to know how the performance of their GP or
local hospital compares with others and the right
to go elsewhere if they wish.

NHS Choices is a response to the 21st-
century challenges of achieving better
health and wellbeing and delivering
high-quality personalised services for
all, amid ever-increasing demands on
a resource-constrained system.
NHS Choices will become:
n A trusted and comprehensive
information service: the single
most important source of practical
guidance and motivation on all
aspects of health and social care.
n A way to connect people to services
and each other.
n A digital health and wellbeing service
that re-engineers the way the NHS
and Social Services deliver care.
The aim is to create networks of
virtual care that help people make
better decisions about their health
and wellbeing, and help transform
the delivery of health and care services.
NHS Choices will be at the heart of a
new relationship between commissioners,
providers and the communities they serve.
It will empower people to make informed
decisions about their health and social
care. It will be their personal health and
wellbeing partner throughout their lives.
For its users, NHS Choices will be their:
n Personal health manager, providing
the information and tools they need
to take control of their health and
wellbeing throughout their lives.
n Online navigator,helping them access
the services they need, when they
need them.
n Social network for health, linking
them up with other people with
common health interests and giving
them opportunities to comment on
their own experiences of health and
care services.
For the NHS and social care services,
NHS Choices will be a:
n Shop window, providing the
opportunity to inform and engage
with patients, people who use
services, carers and the public.
n Driver of improvement, enabling free
choice and a unique source of insight
into people’s experiences of health
and social care.
n Source of personalised digital services,
improving the quality and efficiency
of patient and carer services.
The NHS Choices vision
NHS Choices is the NHS’s online
service for the public – the digital
wing of the NHS.

Strategic goals
Better access
Using technology to reduce inequalities
and offer a personalised service
NHS Choices will use new technology
to deliver personalised services in ways
that ensure they reach those who
need them most, whether directly or
through a carer, a health professional
or GP. It will operate via online, print,
mobile, interactive kiosks, digital TV
and radio channels. It will provide users
with easy access to the NHS’s current
online services by integrating with
services such as NHS Direct, Choose
and Book and NHS HealthSpace.
Better health
Maintaining and improving wellbeing
NHS Choices will enable people to take
greater responsibility for their own health
and wellbeing so they can enjoy longer,
healthier lives. Innovative tools will allow
individuals to assess their own lifestyle
and health risk, and provide practical
information and plans to help reduce
these risks (and facilitate earlier diagnosis).
Better care
Help to navigate the system
NHS Choices will be the front door
to the NHS and social care. It will help
people to understand the right treatment
and care options for themselves or those
for whom they are caring, and to access
those services more easily. Providers
will take control of their own online
profiles, allowing them to promote
the quality and availability of their
own services. Individuals will be able
to create an interactive care pathway.
Such pathways will be specific to their
situation and will cross organisational
boundaries to cover social care, voluntary
and privately provided services.
Better quality through insight
Understanding the patient, client and
carer experience
NHS Choices will be the place for
the public to comment on their
experiences of care and the quality of
services, providing valuable feedback
to ensure services are more responsive
to local need. User-generated content
will help others understand more
about their conditions and local
services, as well as promoting social
networking between patients, people
who use services, carers and clinicians.
Better lives
Improving community partnerships
to deliver better health
NHS Choices will build relationships
by working with local and national
non-NHS partners. The service will
support partnerships in employment,
education, culture and sport. It will
involve national and local government
and voluntary sector agencies, as well
as in the high street, through private
sector partnerships with pharmacies,
retailers and others.
Find NHS Choices at www.nhs.uk
“The NHS of the
future needs to be
more than a universal
service. It will be a
personal service, too.
It will not be the NHS
of the passive patient:
the NHS of the future
will be one of patient
power, patients
engaged and taking
control over their own
health and healthcare”
Prime Minister’s speech on the National
Health Service, January 7 2008

NHS Choices is a
personal health manager,
providing people with the
information and tools they
need to take control of
their health and wellbeing
throughout their lives.
Left: NHS Choices helps people with
long-term conditions make decisions
every step of the way
Right: A mother and her baby try
out the Early Years LifeCheck at
Stockingford Children’s Centre in
Nuneaton in January 2007

NHS Choices is an
online navigator,
helping people find
the services they
need, when they
need them.
Top, left: People can compare services
before choosing where to have treatment
Bottom, left: People can find the nearest
health services with their mobile phone
Above, top: People can find services
by location

NHS Choices first went live in June 2007.
It is a continuous process to maintain and
enrich the information it provides, extend
its technical capabilities and broaden its
relationship with the NHS, the social care
community and beyond. The first major
upgrade went live in November 2007,
with further improvements coming online
throughout 2008.
As the online service for all health and
wellbeing communication with the public,
it has been designed specifically with the
consumer in mind. The information on
NHS Choices is all NHS accredited and
written in plain English. It is accompanied
by videos, user comments and a growing
range of interactive tools, which allow
users to test and monitor their health and
wellbeing. The information held on NHS
Choices is designed so that GPs, social
workers and others can print pages for
people who don’t have internet access.
NHS Choices is already being used
1.5 million times a month and that’s
before any significant public promotion
has taken place.
Pilots are under way in a number of
PCTs to test the value of using alternative
channels, especially mobiles. In common
with other digital publishers, NHS
Choices is also syndicating its content
to other media so that the widest
possible audience sees it. For example,
The Life Channel will soon be showing
NHS Choices videos in more than two
thousand GP surgeries.
The next round of enhancements to
the service includes the introduction
of a series of pathways covering the key
long-term conditions, a suite of life-stage
planners, risk assessment and behaviour-
change tools and a significant increase in
user-generated content. This will lead to
expert blogs, forums and the opportunity
for people to have their say on every
aspect of their health and care.
NHS Choices is also starting to bring
together a range of existing NHS online
services for the public so that they can
all be accessed in one place.
NHS Choices is constantly developing and
expanding its coverage and capabilities.
What is NHS Choices
already doing?
“NHS Choices reflects
the information age
– a world in which
expanding amounts
of data are distributed
with increasing
speed. People expect
information to make
decisions about many
aspects of daily life.
NHS Choices helps
fulfil that need”
Choice Matters, Department
of Health 2007/08

10 NHS Choices: delivering for the NHS
“I am personally committed to making
information about the clinical performance
of the NHS more accessible, not only to
inform patients but to drive improvement
where necessary. NHS Choices is a huge
step forward in this regard and its power
lies in the fact that clinicians and patients
alike are informing its development”
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director and NHS Choices Clinical Information
Advisory Group chairman
What is NHS Choices
already doing?
Patients’ thoughts
and feedback
Patients can use the site to provide
direct and immediate feedback on
their experiences in hospital. NHS
Choices publishes all comments,
whether good or bad, subject to
moderation rules. Hospitals also
have a right of reply.
Driving improvement

NHS Choices: delivering for the NHS 11
Online navigator
“We advise GPs to visit the NHS Choices site
and to fill in their own profiles. We believe
in developing online services, as long as they
are reliable. This is a useful resource for GPs
as it will allow patients to find out accurate
information directly from their practice”
Dr Laurence Buckman, Chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP Committee
Compare hospitals
People can compare performance
and other data on all hospitals that
provide the treatment they need.
For the first time, NHS Choices
brings together in one place data on
issues such as waiting times, MRSA
rates, the number of times a unit
undertakes specific surgeries and
the Healthcare Commission’s annual
health check scores.
Map of Medicine
People can now see the information
many doctors use to plan their
treatment. The Map presents visual
decision trees, developed by experts
in evidence-based medicine, for over
one hundred conditions.
Find a service
People can enter a postcode to
find their nearest medical service,
including hospitals, GP surgeries,
dentists, pharmacies, smoking
cessation clinics, sports facilities
and others. People can also text
the service required to 64746
(“NHSGO”).
Profiles of
providers
Every GP and hospital trust in
England can choose to edit its
own NHS Choices profile with
information about its staff, clinics
and performance data. Dentists,
pharmacists and opticians also have
profiles on the site.
The NHS’s shop window
Health A-Z
An easy-to-use encyclopaedia of conditions and treatments. The A-Z draws
together high quality, accredited and accessible content on more than 700
conditions from the National Library for Health and elsewhere, videos of real
people, advice from named clinical experts and links to further information. The
A-Z covers prevention, symptoms and treatment options, as well as questions to
ask your specialist and information on managing and living with the condition.
Live Well
Magazine-style multimedia content designed to appeal to the interests and
concerns of particular groups, from teenagers to 60-plus, or those with interests
in a specific health issue. Live Well offers clinically approved advice on lifestyle-
related health issues in the form of features, audio and videos, along with
interactive tools and games. The service also uses experiences and stories from
the public to support the advice, making it more personal and relevant.
Behind the Headlines
A daily, evidence-based news service that analyses and where necessary corrects
the blizzard of health stories and claims that make the news.
Personal health manager

NHS Choices is a social
network for health, linking up
people with common health
interests and giving them
opportunities to comment on
their own experiences of health
and care services.
Above: Diana Wilson shares her story of
living with obsessive compulsive disorder
Far right, top: Community forums
connect users
Far right, bottom: A patient comments
on his experience in hospital
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NHS Choices is a
shop window, providing
the opportunity to inform
and engage with patients,
people who use services,
carers and the public.
Left and above, top: Hospitals and GPs
can take control of the information that
appears on their NHS Choices pages
Above, bottom: Expert views are
encouraged on the site

NHS Choices has just got started.
The next three years will see its services
develop to help people take control of
their health and wellbeing.
A personal health manager
NHS Choices aims to build a lifelong
relationship with individuals, equipping
them with information and interactive
services to stay as healthy as possible
throughout their lives. NHS Choices
will provide people with a personalised
virtual health manager, and will enable
secure access to their medical records and
other services through NHS HealthSpace.
Find out the risks
Whether an individual wants to look at
specific issues (smoking, diet or hereditary
conditions) or get a general picture of
the risks they face, NHS Choices will offer
a range of evidence-based interactive
tools, health checks and games. Each will
be followed up with clinically appropriate
information and advice, including
signposting to relevant local services. NHS
Choices will also be the online platform for
a series of NHS LifeCheck tools enabling
users at different ages and stages of life
to assess their behaviour, identify what
they could change and access support to
maintain healthier lifestyles. These tools
will be available in 2008.
“As clinicians, we want our patients to
stay healthy. To do so, they need the
right information in an easily useable
form. Online tools grounded in solid
research and testing will do this as well
as providing an important source of
support for GPs in the task of improving
the health of their patients”
Dr Michael Dixon, NHS Alliance
chairman and NHS LifeCheck Programme
Board chairman
The health account
By summer 2008, a patient will have the
option to create an online account in
which to record their preferences, save
a profile and bookmark useful content.
NHS Choices will help people to create and
monitor their own health action plans and
give them the option of receiving email
newsletters, RSS services and motivational
messages. The health account will become
the route into NHS HealthSpace, the only
fully secure, free online environment giving
people access to their medical records
and a range of personalised services.
The health statement
NHS Choices will generate personal health
and wellbeing statements on a quarterly or
annual basis. The statement will summarise
simply and visually a patient’s health over
the previous year, including the health
services they’ve used, the results of any risk
assessments they’ve taken, and a recap
on goals set and actions taken. If they
have been diagnosed with a long-term
condition or are facing a major operation,
NHS Choices will also create a personalised
information prescription for either them or
their GP, social worker or carer to download.
This will include reliable information about
the condition and treatment options, and
details of support groups and local services.
The online navigator
NHS Choices will create a new era
of transparency about the quality and
availability of health and care services.
It will equip people to make informed
choices and get what they need from
the health and care system.
“Access to good quality information about
health and social care services is essential
if people want to have control of their lives,
care and support. NHS Choices provides the
opportunity to access such information”
David Behan, director general for social
care, Department of Health
The journey planner
Whether someone is facing diagnosis of a
condition or simply entering a new phase
of life, such as pregnancy, NHS Choices
will equip them to make decisions at every
point along the way. A series of pathways
and planners will present: easily navigable
information on symptoms, treatments and
lifestyle; comparative data on providers;
other people’s experiences; decision aids;
expert advice; and directories of services,
including social care. Patients will be
able to design (and redesign) their own
journey, either alone or with their carer
or health professional. Pathways will
cover the top 40 conditions by 2009.
“NHS Choices is a good example of an
online ‘navigator’ that can help people
find their way around the health system”
Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham
KBE, parliamentary under secretary of
state at the Department of Health
Putting people in control
NHS Choices will equip people to make informed
choices and to get what they need from the health
and care system.

Informed choices
NHS Choices enables people to make
informed decisions about their health
and care, providing the single most
comprehensive, validated and easily
searchable source of comparative data
on the quality and availability of services.
NHS Choices will help patients and their
carers to decide whether they need
treatment and, if so, to choose the
treatment that is right for them, as
well as where and when to get it.
Information on quality, in relation to
specific medical and surgical treatments,
will take into account NICE guidance,
clinical evidence and the models of
care outlined by the NHS Next Stage
Review. It will be clear about whether
a treatment is clinically effective or
where there is uncertainty and whether
a provider meets defined standards for
supplying that treatment. Measures of
other patients’ experiences complement
these clinical indicators.
People will be able to tailor their searches
according to their knowledge, experience,
location and what matters to them. This
means that the service can be useful to
both an expert patient looking for the
latest research and an everyday user
looking for some basic facts. The range
of data available through NHS Choices
is constantly and rapidly expanding.
The portal to the NHS
People will be able to use NHS Choices
to make their dealings with the NHS and
social care work better for them. Through
NHS HealthSpace, the service will in time
enable them to book appointments
online, email their clinicians, access their
personal health records, order repeat
prescriptions, get test results and complete
checklists of questions in advance of an
appointment. They will also be able to
record their care preferences so that they
are available wherever they are treated.
The social network for health
Health-focused web forums, blogs
and social networks are a rapidly
growing resource for people sharing
their experiences and seeking advice.
Many already exist and can be made
available through NHS Choices. More
will also be created, utilising expert input
from NHS professionals and the Expert
Patients Programme.
When people want to comment directly
on their experiences of particular services,
whether positive or negative, NHS
Choices will become their first port of call.
This service is already available for hospital
care but will be extended in 2008 to allow
comment on GPs and other services.
“Designing and delivering services
that fit with people’s lives will help
to reduce inequalities in health and
social care outcomes”
Our NHS, Our Future, October 2007
Bridging the
digital divide
Digital technology has the potential to
widen health inequalities. However, it also
has the potential to open up access to
health services and information to groups
that have traditionally been underserved.
NHS Choices intends to demonstrate this.
Analysis of health inequalities and
research into how people prefer
to receive and use information is
informing the development of a
strategy for tackling health inequalities.
NHS Choices will:
n Deliver information and services
through alternative channels,
including mobiles, digital TV,
radio and kiosks.
n Train health professionals and other
intermediaries to use NHS Choices
services with their clients or print
key information for them.
A programme of local pilots is under
way in Humber, Derby, Warwickshire,
Coventry and London to test these
approaches. For example:
n Giving young people access to
information about sexual health
and services through mobiles and
Bluetooth technology.
n Making NHS Choices available through
workplace intranets and creating online
communities around smoking and
exercise, aimed at those who are more
likely to access the internet at work.
n Training staff in children’s centres
to help parents undertake LifeCheck
assessments focusing on their
babies’ wellbeing.
n Linking up with community radio to
make health-related audio packages
available to non-internet users.
“Even when we are
healthy we should
have access to
information about
our risks and advice
on how we can
maintain our health.
That is the kind of
real control the NHS
must give us all if
we are to have a
service fit to meet
the challenges of the
21st century”
Prime Minister’s speech on the National
Health Service, January 7 2008

NHS Choices is a
driver of improvement,
enabling free choice
and providing a unique
source of insight into
people’s experiences of
health and social care.
In the Patient Choice video, members of
the public say why they would choose
where to be treated

Users can read what people think
of a hospital
Yvonne Bennett talks about
discovering her right to choose
and how it put her in control

Serving the 21st
century NHS
This relationship will bring new
opportunities and new challenges for
both individuals and organisations.
The NHS shop window
NHS Choices will reveal the quality and
availability of services across the country.
Every doctor, dentist and NHS provider
will have their own profile page by 2009,
allowing them to take control of how
they present themselves and how they
communicate the quality and relevance
of their services.
At local, regional and national level, the
NHS will also be able to use the service
to improve the quality and depth of its
engagement with local communities,
from online consultations to coordinated
public health campaigns.
“As a chief executive I am looking
forward to NHS Choices delivering
up-to-the-minute feedback from
patients in a similar way to Expedia
or eBay. That ‘customer insight’ is a
powerful incentive for us to improve
our services. Anything that helps us to
get better is good news for the trust
and great news for patients”
Gavin Boyle, chief executive, Yeovil
District Hospital Foundation Trust
Driving improvements in health
and healthcare
As the engine of free choice and the
source of open feedback on NHS
performance, NHS Choices will drive
positive competition and require NHS
organisations to create and demonstrate
continuous improvements in quality.
The feedback it gathers will be invaluable
in supporting world-class commissioning.
“Working with NHS Choices has enabled
us to pilot some innovative approaches
using different communication channels
and social marketing techniques to help
people in North East Lincolnshire to
make healthier lifestyle choices”
Jane Lewington, Chief executive,
North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus
The service will support and enrich locally
driven programmes to improve public
health and reduce inequalities, providing
a rich source of health information
and evidence-based tools to support
behaviour change that can be tailored
to local priorities.
The NHS Choices service will be
developed to give highly personalised
advice to all on diet and activity levels,
with clear and consistent information
on how to maintain a healthy weight.
NHS Choices will also become the online
channel for national campaigns: Go
Smokefree is already accessible via the
NHS Choices site.
New opportunities will be created to
involve employers, local government,
voluntary organisations and patient
groups in influencing people’s health
and wellbeing ‘in the rest of their lives’.
By syndicating services to employers’
intranets and community organisations,
linking up with school curricula and
other initiatives, NHS Choices will
provide a focal point for health and
wellbeing promotion.
“NHS Choices is a unique and vibrant
resource of great value to voluntary
organisations and charities concerned
with health and care. Its interactive
features allow patients to track their
healthcare over time and make informed
choices for their future wellbeing.
The Users’ Council will ensure there
are opportunities for an active
partnership between the creators
and users of this resource”
Clive Evers, director of knowledge
management, Alzheimer’s Society,
and chairman of the NHS Choices
Users’ Council
Personalising services
NHS Choices will provide personalised,
digital services that help improve the
quality and efficiency of interactions with
patients. Pre-consultation questionnaires,
online decision aids and email
consultations will save clinicians time,
improve consultations and support their
relationships with patients.
Remote monitoring and other telehealth
initiatives are already beginning to
transform the experiences of people
with long-term conditions. NHS Choices
will support and facilitate the delivery of
such services in its role as a secure online
personal health manager.
NHS Choices will be at the heart of the new
relationship between the NHS, Social Services
and the communities they serve.

“The future has
already arrived.
It’s just not evenly
distributed yet”
William Gibson, writer, quoted in
The Economist, December 4 2003
Individual patients, clinicians and others
across the NHS are already creating local
digital solutions to the challenges they
face. NHS Choices aims to support and
accelerate the take-up of these kinds of
innovations, to appropriate clinical and
governance standards, by both healthcare
professionals and their patients.
Health information via YouTube
Patients of a rural GP practice in
Wales can now view films to help
them manage their health on www.
builthsurgery.co.uk, and anyone can
find them on YouTube. The videos
include demonstrations of flu vaccination,
using an inhaler and blood sugar testing.
GP Dr Richard Walters says, “We are
in rural mid-Wales, with shops and
other services often an hour or more
away from where people live. Our
patients do tend to use the internet for
all sorts of things. Sometimes getting
patients to watch a quick video on the
computer screen is a lot easier than
having them travel in to see us.”
Accessing patient records online
Access to their own electronic care
plan is available to patients with
chronic kidney disease who sign up to
www.renalpatientview.org. The project
is a partnership between professional
and patient organisations, the Renal
Information Exchange Group.
Patients can review their blood test
results and clinic letters, check their
diagnosis and access information.
The data are updated at least once
a day from the local unit’s own
computer system and patients are
encouraged to contact their unit if
they spot any inaccuracies.
GPs with patients who are signed up
to the system are able to review their
details. Patients can also opt to share
their password with family or carers.
One user says, “I felt like a pest because
I kept ringing the hospital for my results
after I had attended clinic. I now feel
that my results belong to me.”
Social and health networking for
teenagers experiencing cancer
Cancerbackup has developed a site
aimed at teenagers at www.click4tic.
org.uk. The site allows users to set up
their own web page, communicate with
other teenagers via the forum, add tips
or ask a nurse a question. There are
also games sections, blogs and links to
Bebo, Facebook and MySpace.
Rebecca Grant, aged 15, was diagnosed
with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in
September 2005. She says, “It was a
massive shock, for me and my family,
when I was diagnosed with cancer. At
first, I thought I was the only child with
cancer, but being able to use the TIC
website made me realise that I was not
alone, and that others my age were
living with cancer too. It really helped
me and I got loads of tips on how to
cope with hair loss and chemo.”
Online repeat prescription service
www.myrepeats.com was set up as an
NHS limited company owned by a group
of experienced general practitioners and
pharmacists in Worthing, West Sussex.
The service allows registered patients
to place orders for repeat prescriptions,
free of charge and delivered to their
pharmacist or their house. The site
sends users an email reminder when
they are next due to order their
medicines. Paul Howie, a pharmacist,
says, “We processed over 1,000 scripts
in December, just four months from
launch. Even customers in their 60s and
70s are using the service. Those that
can’t use the internet ask a carer to sign
up on their behalf.”
Enabling self-care
Marple Cottage Surgery, in Stockport,
has pioneered an online monitoring
service for asthma patients. Patients
can complete regular reviews of their
asthma at home, and share them with
the asthma nurse securely online, rather
than coming into the surgery.
Practice manager Johan Taylor says, “This
service is an extension of the personalised
self-management plans that are already
offered in the surgery, but it is another
way for patients to communicate with us.
Online reviews are particularly beneficial
for patients who find it difficult to attend
the surgery during working hours.
“While it frees up appointment times
for the practice, a far more important
benefit is that it engages patients
directly in their own healthcare.”
Hospital doctors using text messaging
Dr Badal Pal, a consultant rheumatologist
at the South Manchester Hospitals
NHS Trust, has been texting patients
with their test results and information
about follow up. Rather than waiting
several weeks, patients often receive
their results in only a few days. Text
messaging is particularly attractive,
because so many patients have mobile
phones, even in lower income groups.
Dr Pal says, “I encourage patients to
text me to report whether or not a
treatment or intervention (for example,
corticosteroid injections into joints or soft
tissues) has been successful. If patients
do not report the expected benefit, then
I can offer further advice or, if necessary,
arrange an earlier appointment. I have
been able to discharge a sizeable
proportion of patients following text
message reporting.”

NHS Choices is a
source of personalised
digital services,
improving the quality
and efficiency of patient
and carer services.
Secretary of State for Health Alan
Johnson launches the NHS Choices
sexual health information pilot in the
Humber region in November 2007

NHS Choices: delivering for the NHS 21Find NHS Choices at www.nhs.uk
2010 and beyond
What will NHS Choices mean to people?
Fitting health into life
“I’ve got three teenage kids and
barely have time to cook dinner,
let alone think about looking after
my health. Jay came back from
school one day with a 5 A Day
chart from NHS Choices, which
he fills in religiously. I went on the
site myself and did a questionnaire
and they sent me a plan for healthy eating that I can fit into
our lives. What’s even better is that, as long as I record what
I’ve eaten and how much I weigh, the NHS Choices Health and
Wellbeing Club gives me points to spend on activities at the
local gym. I’ve used them to do some fun things with the boys
– I’ve even been up the climbing wall!”
Keeping track of my risks
from home
“When I had my first baby, I had
to go for blood pressure tests
three times a week, which was a
real pain. When the second one
came along, they said I could use
a home monitor that plugs into
my computer. The results got sent
straight to my GP and I could see them in my HealthSpace
account. The couple of times it got a bit high they called me
and I went in to get checked out. I felt much less anxious and
Bo is now a happy three-month-old.”
Simple access to
simple messages
“I’m from Poland, my English is not
good. I work in a hotel and I want
to stop smoking. I saw a poster in
the kitchen and texted 64746. This
tells me I can get free gum from the
chemist near by and now they send
me texts to help me not to smoke.”
Managing my pills
“I have to take several pills these
days, all at different times. I get
awfully confused but now my
pharmacist puts it all into the
computer. He prints me off a nice
clear sheet that has pictures of all
the pills and when to take them.
He sends me regular updates – a
bit like bank statements really. What’s amazing is that
my doctor can find my sheet on her own computer when
I go and see her.”
The health trainer
“I often use NHS Choices with
my clients. People find it amazing
when you show them how much
higher diabetes rates are round
here than they are in nearby
boroughs. It’s a great way of
focusing minds, and I can then
help them do a personalised risk
assessment on the site there and then.”
My online network
“One of the things about having
MS is that the computer is a real
lifeline. First, I discovered that,
much as I liked my GP, there was
another one in a practice nearby
that had a real interest in MS.
Secondly, I found the NHS Choices
care planner, which has helped me
look at my options all along the way, and talk to the doc about
moving on to drug therapy. Then I got into the online forum.
Telling my story on the site and having so much feedback has
made me feel like I’ve really helped people. I can even bother
the NHS Choices experts with questions in the middle of the
night when I can’t sleep.”

NHS Choices is ambitious for the future. We know that
many individuals in the NHS and beyond not only share
that ambition but also are already creating innovative
solutions. NHS Choices aspires to harness that innovative
spirit. Moreover, we know that meeting the needs of the
local NHS is central to making NHS Choices a service
that is integral to the NHS of the 21st century.
We want to know what we can
do for you.
How do you think online or digital
services can help you improve your
services to patients? Are you already
making use of such technologies?
Are there any specific types of
information, tools or services you
think would benefit patients?
Is there a specific challenge you want
to set for NHS Choices?
Send your feedback on the future of NHS Choices
to thechoicesteam@nhschoices.nhs.uk
Tell us what NHS Choices
can do next

NHS Choices - delivering for the NHS

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