§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the London pilot scheme extending patient choice to cataract patients. [97315]
§ Mr. HuttonInitial survey work has been undertaken internally within the pilot scheme to obtain feedback from patients who have already received treatment under the cataract choice scheme in London. The feedback from this research has helped inform the ongoing design of the London scheme for other specialties and the planned national roll out across England.
Patients themselves when being offered choice are making an individual assessment of the relative attractiveness of the scheme to them. So far for cataracts, of the 2,247 patients offered the choice of earlier treatment, 1,685 have accepted. This means that there has been a very high take up rate, 75 per cent., of those patients who already had been waiting for treatment.