Patient Initiated requests to move Hospitals

If you have been waiting for an appointment or procedure for over 40 weeks, and do not have an appointment date in the next eight weeks, the hospital in charge of your care may contact you to ask if you want to request to move to another hospital. This could be another NHS hospital, who may be able to see you sooner.

Once we receive your request, we would only be able to move your care if the local Integrated Care Board (ICB) can identify another hospital that has the capacity and can provide a shorter waiting time for the operation you need.

If you accept a transfer of care to another hospital, this will include everything including your outpatient appointments, pre-operative assessments or checks, your operation, and any follow-up appointments until you are fully discharged.

There are some patients who cannot be considered for a move to another hospital. This particularly applies to patients with a complex medical condition or who need very specialist care that needs to be provided in a particular hospital.

This alternative choice of hospital for people waiting over 40 weeks is currently only for patients aged 18 and over.

If you think that you may be eligible to make an alternative choice, you must wait for the hospital in charge of your care to get in contact with you. Please do not contact your hospital or your GP practice directly.

When the hospital contacts you, they will give you more information about the process and will be able to answer your questions to help you consider your options.

As with any patient choice you will need to consider various factors such as location (including travel times to all appointments) and quality of care.