Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to promote cooperation between Integrated Care Boards on (a) data and (b) treatment options for patients.

My rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has announced that there will be a single patient record that allow all providers access to a comprehensive record, to relevant depth and with appropriate safeguards. This would allow patient data to be shared, if necessary, between services in different integrated care boards (ICBs) and give professionals access to the information they need to make the best-informed decisions when delivering care and treatment.

In addition, the NHS Standing Rules set out specific obligations on ICBs to enable patients to choose aspects of their healthcare.

Commissioners need to ensure where a patient requires a physical health elective referral for a first outpatient appointment and any subsequent treatment that is required, to a consultant or a member of a consultant’s team, the patient can choose any clinically appropriate provider that holds a qualifying NHS Standard Contract with any ICB or NHS England, for the service which the patient needs because of the referral.

ICBs should be engaging with local primary and secondary care, and their peers, to build choice into commissioning plans and monitoring referral patterns for potential opportunities and issues related to choice.