PATIENTS will choose treatment at hospitals with the shortest waiting times via the NHS app under new plans.
They could shave three months off waits with the overhaul of the GP referral system.
Patients will be offered five hospitals or clinics by their GP when they are sent to see a specialist such as an eye, skin or joint clinic.
They will then compare them on the NHS website or app for waiting times, care quality and distance from home.
GP surgeries will be given training on offering the options.
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The system already exists but PM Rishi Sunak said: “Just one in ten patients currently make a choice about where they receive care.
“We want to change that by helping the NHS to offer patients a real choice while also giving patients the information they need to decide.”
Health Secretary Steve Barclay added: “This could wipe months off wait times.”
A record 7.3million people are waiting for hospital treatment in England.
Forty per cent of them wait longer than the 18-week target time.
A postcode lottery means some hospitals make nearly 70 per cent of patients wait longer than 4.5 months while others treat everyone on time.
A record 820,000 Brits were admitted to private hospitals in 2022 as desperate patients paid to skip NHS queues.
The referral system kicks in immediately and a public campaign will urge people to use their right to choose to be seen sooner.
Rachel Power, of the Patients Association, said: “Work we’ve done shows patients’ awareness of choice is not high, nor are many offered choice regularly.
"We hope the changes will lead to more exercising their right to choose.”
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