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The right itself, in the NHS's own words

This is a legal right, set out in the NHS Constitution. The NHS's own guide puts it plainly:

"you have the legal right to choose the hospital or service you'd like to go to, as well as the clinical team led by a consultant" (NHS, read 21 September 2026)

Choosing where you go

For a routine referral, this covers both the hospital or service itself and the consultant-led team within it, meaning the team headed by a consultant. You can name either, or both, when your GP makes the referral.

Asking to move if the wait runs long

A second right sits alongside the first, and it applies once you are already on a pathway. The NHS states it in the same guide:

"You have the legal right to ask to be seen or treated by a different provider if you're likely to wait longer than the maximum waiting time" (NHS, read 21 September 2026)

That maximum is the 18-week standard measured from your referral date, and it is worth knowing where you actually stand against it before you raise this with anyone. The How Long Have I Been Waiting? tool works from the date on your referral letter and shows the weeks waited so far and the date the standard was or will be reached, alongside these same two rights quoted with their source. You can find it at /tools/how-long-have-i-been-waiting/index.html.

From referral to appointment

The steps from referral to naming a provider

Getting from a referral to a named provider is a short chain of moves, and each step uses something already published.

  1. Check the referral is one you can redirect

    The right to choose applies to a routine referral for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment, whether your GP is about to make it or has already made it. If treatment has not started, this counts as an incomplete pathway, and the right still applies even though a wait is already under way.

    If you want to see how many weeks you have waited already, and when the 18-week standard falls due, use How Long Have I Been Waiting? before you decide whether to redirect a referral that is already under way.

    No referral yet

    Ask your GP to name your chosen provider on the referral itself.

    Referral already made

    Ask your GP, or the provider's own booking team, to move the referral to a different provider on the same pathway.

  2. Look up who is fastest and where

    My Planned Care publishes waiting times by provider and by specialty, so you can compare how long each hospital on your list is currently taking for the same treatment. Check the date on the figure before comparing two providers, since a wait quoted for one month can move by the next, and treat the published figure as a starting point.

    The figures come from providers' own submissions and can be wrong or out of date for a given specialty.

  3. Read the rating for each name on your list

    Alongside the wait, check the Care Quality Commission's rating for the same provider: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate. A shorter wait at a provider rated Requires Improvement and a longer wait at one rated Good are both real choices, so read the rating and the wait for the same provider together.

  4. Narrow it to a short list

    Keep two or three providers whose wait and rating you would both accept, together with the consultant-led team if your referral names a specific one. Write the names down in the order you would take them, since this is the list you carry into the appointment.

  5. Name your choice at the appointment

    Tell your GP the provider, and the consultant-led team if one applies, and ask for it to be entered on the referral.

    Provider is on the GP's system

    The GP enters it directly and the referral goes to that provider.

    Provider is not on the GP's system

    Ask the GP to refer you to that provider by another route, since not every provider shows on every GP system.

None of this needs doing in one sitting. You can look up waits and ratings beforehand and take the list in with you.

Using My Planned Care and the CQC's ratings to build a shortlist

My Planned Care is the NHS's own site for published waits by hospital and specialty, updated weekly, and it lets you compare providers by postcode. It is worth looking at before you decide who to name, because it shows what patients referred to the same specialty are actually waiting, provider by provider.

Checking the waits

Search for your specialty and look at more than one provider near you. A shorter published wait at a provider a little further away is worth weighing against the time and cost of getting there, and that trade-off is yours to make.

If you want to see where your own referral already stands before you start comparing, How Long Have I Been Waiting? takes the date on your referral letter and shows how many weeks you have waited and the date the 18-week standard falls due. Knowing that date makes it easier to judge whether a provider's published wait would keep you inside the standard or push you past it.

Reading the rating alongside the wait

A published wait tells you how long. A Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating tells you something different: how the CQC assessed that provider against its five questions the last time it inspected. A shorter wait at a provider rated Requires Improvement and a longer wait at one rated Good are both real trade-offs, and choosing between them is a judgement only you can make.

Turning the comparison into a shortlist

  • The specialty wait published for each provider on My Planned Care.
  • Its CQC rating, and how old that rating is.
  • How far the provider is from you, and what that means in practice.

Write that down for a small number of providers and take the list into the appointment. You do not need to have picked one before you walk in. Naming two or three and asking your GP which are open to you for this referral works just as well as naming one.

The conversation with your GP

The right to choose only matters once you use it in the room. It is one thing to know you can name a provider, and another to actually say it to your GP and watch them act on it. This is about that moment: the words that work, what your GP is looking at while you say them, and what happens once the referral leaves the surgery.

Naming the provider

You do not need to justify your choice or negotiate for it. Say the name of the hospital or clinic you want, and ask for a consultant-led team there, meaning a team led by a consultant. If you have not settled on a single place, you can still ask your GP which providers are open to you for this referral and work from that list.

What your GP sees on screen

When your GP makes the referral, they work from a system that lets them search for a provider by name and send the referral there. Saying the provider's name clearly, and being ready to repeat or spell it, is usually all it takes for them to find it and select it.

If the provider you want does not come up, or your GP is unsure whether it is available for your particular pathway, ask them to check. Whether a system shows a provider on a given day is a separate question from whether you are entitled to ask for it, and the right to choose applies either way.

After you name a provider

Once the referral goes through, it is sent to the provider you named. From that point your wait is measured on the same referral-to-treatment clock as any other referral, and the waiting times and CQC rating that now apply to you are the ones published for the provider you chose. If you want to see where that clock puts you today, use the How Long Have I Been Waiting? tool: enter the date on your referral letter and it shows the weeks waited so far and the date the 18-week standard is reached.

Naming a provider is not a decision you are locked into. If you change your mind before your first appointment, you can ask your GP or the provider to redirect the referral elsewhere.