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The words
How to ask for it
Knowing you can switch is no use without the words. This is what to say — to your GP if you haven’t been referred yet, or to the booking team or your ICB if you’re already waiting.
I’d like to use my right to choose my provider for this referral. I’ve looked at the published NHS waiting times and another provider is reporting a shorter wait for this specialty. Could we look at referring me there instead?
If I’m already on a waiting list and have been waiting more than 18 weeks without a date for treatment, I understand I can ask my Integrated Care Board to find me a faster alternative provider. Could you tell me how to request that?
What the right actually covers
- You can choose any provider in England that offers the treatment you need and holds an NHS contract for it — including independent hospitals doing NHS work, at no cost to you.
- The choice applies at the point of referral, and you can ask to switch later too, though it’s more straightforward at referral.
- If you’ve waited more than 18 weeks without a treatment date, you can ask your ICB to help find a faster alternative.
- Switching means starting with a new outpatient appointment. Weigh the travel and the disruption against the time saved — sometimes staying put is the better call.
Official guidance: NHS guide to waiting times.
Straight answers
What these numbers are, and what they aren’t
- They’re about six weeks behind. NHS England publishes monthly, with a lag. A queue can move in that time.
- They’re trust-level averages, not your wait. The figure shown is the median across everyone still waiting in that specialty at that trust. Your own wait depends on urgency, clinical need and which site you’re treated at.
- Distances are approximate. Straight-line distance scaled for typical road detour, measured to the trust’s registered address. Large trusts run several hospitals, and your appointment may not be at the main one.
- Small queues are hidden. Where fewer than 50 people are waiting, a median says more about chance than about the queue, so we don’t show it.
- Not every provider does the same thing. The data records a specialty, not what kind of service a provider runs. A trust with a handful of people waiting in a specialty is usually a community clinic or a single-procedure centre rather than a faster route to the same treatment, so those aren’t suggested as switches — but they’re still listed, flagged, for you to judge. Independent hospitals doing NHS work are genuine options and are included.
- England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland publish separately.
This site presents official statistics and points to a right you already have. It isn’t medical advice, and it can’t tell you whether switching is right for you — your clinician can.