The NHS Constitution

The NHS Constitution lays out the rights and responsibilities for patients and the public.

Rights

The NHS grants patients rights which are intended to be legally enforceable and also makes other non-binding pledges.

These are in the areas of access; quality of care and environment; access to treatments, medicines and screening programmes; respect, consent and confidentiality; informed choice; patient involvement in healthcare and public involvement in the NHS; and complaints and redress.

Rights of access

Your rights are to healthcare that is:

• free of charge
• non-discriminatory
• never refused on unreasonable grounds
• obtainable from any UK NHS provider or with pre-approval from any EEA or Swiss public provider
• assessed by the local NHS to meet locally assessed needs

Right to quality of care

• Quality of care and environment are sees as the right to:
  treatment with a professional standard of care, by appropriately qualified and experienced staff
• Patients can expect NHS organisations to monitor, and make efforts to improve, the quality of healthcare they commission or provide.

Right to approved treatments, drugs and programmes

Patients have the right to

• drugs and treatments that have been recommended by NICE for use in the NHS, if their doctor says they are clinically appropriate for them.
• expect local decisions on funding of other drugs and treatments to be made rationally following a proper consideration of the evidence. If the local NHS decides not to fund a drug or treatment that you and your doctor feel would be right for you, the local NHS must explain that decision.
• receive the approved vaccinations under an NHS-provided national immunisation programme.

Right to respect, consent and confidentiality

The NHS constitution gives patients the right to

• be treated with dignity and respect
• accept or refuse treatment that is offered, and not to be given any examination or treatment without valid consent
• be given information about your proposed treatment in advance, including any significant risks and any alternative treatments which may be available, and the risks involved in doing nothing
• privacy and confidentiality and to expect the NHS to keep their confidential information safe and secure
• access to their own health records. which will always be used to manage treatment in the patient’s best interests.

Right to informed choice

Patients are given rights including the right to:

• choose their own GP practice, and to be accepted by that practice unless there are reasonable grounds to refuse
• express a preference for using a particular doctor within your GP practice, and for the practice to try to comply
• make choices about their NHS care and to information to support these choices.

Right to involvement

The NHS recognises the following rights for people to:

• be involved in discussions and decisions about one’s own health care, and to be given information to enable one to do this
• be involved, directly or through representatives, in the planning of health care services, the development and consideration of proposals for changes in the way those services are provided, and in decisions to be made affecting the operation of those services.

Right to complaint and redress

Patients are given rights to

• have any complaint made about NHS services dealt with efficiently and to have it properly investigated
• know the outcome of any investigation into a complaint
• take a complaint to the independent Health Service Ombudsman, if they are not satisfied with the way your complaint was dealt with by the NHS
• make a claim for judicial review if they think they have been directly affected by an unlawful act or decision of an NHS body
• compensation where they have been harmed by negligent treatment.

Responsibilities

The NHS Constitution also sets out responsibilities for you.

• You should recognise that you can make a significant contribution to your own, and your family’s, good health and wellbeing, and take some personal responsibility for it.
• You should register with a GP practice – the main point of access to NHS care.
• You should treat NHS staff and other patients with respect and recognise that causing a nuisance or disturbance on NHS premises could result in prosecution.
• You should provide accurate information about your health, condition and status.
• You should keep appointments, or cancel within reasonable time. Receiving treatment within the maximum waiting times may be compromised unless you do.
• You should follow the course of treatment which you have agreed, and talk to your clinician if you find this difficult.
• You should participate in important public health programmes such as vaccination.
• You should ensure that those closest to you are aware of your wishes about organ donation.
• You should give feedback – both positive and negative – about the treatment and care you have received, including any adverse reactions you may have had.