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7 Feb 12
NHS Constitution: Your right to access treatment within maximum waiting times
The NHS Constitution provides patients with a right to access services within maximum waiting times, including the right to start consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from referral for non-emergency conditions.
Where this is not possible (and where patients request it), the NHS Constitution requires the NHS to take all reasonable steps to offer patients a range of suitable alternative providers. This right is set out in legally binding Directions (Primary Care and Strategic Health Authorities (Waiting Times) Directions 2010)2.
On 2 February David Flory, Deputy NHS chief executive, wrote to all NHS chief executives reminding them about this. The letter is in NHS-speak and includes sentences like “92 per cent of patients on an incomplete pathway should be waiting no more than 18 weeks”. You can see it in full here.
If you’ve been waiting more than eighteen weeks, Swindon LINk would be interested to hear. You can let us know here.
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