Local services

Hospitals

Did you know that you can choose your hospital?

For more information on patient choice, please click the attachment below:

 Patients Choice 485kb

If you, or someone you know, needs hospital treatment or tests, you now have a wide choice as to where and when you can receive them for the majority of services. You have free choice for hospital treatment and can choose to get treatment from any NHS hospital in England and a number of independent / private sector providers which have been entered as a choice on the NHS Choose and Book system. All hospitals and independent providers have to meet the same quality standards to be registered to give NHS care. You can also choose a date that suits you. You need a referral from your GP or other health professional to get hospital treatment.

Choose and Book

Choose and Book allows you to choose the place, date and time of your first out-patient appointment in a hospital or clinic. You can also use Choose and Book to change your appointment time to suit you. Your GP will explain how this works when she or he refers you to a hospital or clinic. Use the Choose and Book web site to find out more or change your appointment time.

Talk to your GP

Do talk to your GP about any hospital treatment or tests you may need before thinking about where you want to go and when. Your GP can tell you about any follow-up care, rehabilitation, medication and tests you may need, and how NHS services operate.

Choosing a hospital

The Homerton University Hospital Foundation NHS Trust is our main local hospital and provides general hospital services, and specialist care in areas such as Obstetrics. Barts and the London Hospitals NHS Trust is also local and provides more specialist services, such as Cancer and Cardiology services to our local population. For information about the local hospitals used by most City & Hackney patients, look on their web sites listed below. Better still, use the NHS Choices web site to compare hospitals in terms of the quality of care they provide such as hospital infections rates (MRSA), if a surgical department has a lot of experience in a specific operation, waiting times and how patients rate the care they got. NHS Choices can also let you compare hospital facilities like car parking and disabled access.

Remember MRSA and other hospital acquired infections are very rare, are generally going down, and rates can go up and down in any one year and can vary across a hospital. If you are worried about MRSA or anything else relating to your hospital appointment or treatment, speak to your GP or contact the hospital Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) who are there to help you and answer your questions. All hospital have a PALS service which you can find on their web site.

The two main local hospitals are:
Homerton Hospital
Homerton Row, London, E9 6SR.
Tel: 020 8510 5555
Web site: http://www.homerton.nhs.uk/

Barts and The London Hospital
(includes:  The Royal London Hospital St Bartholomew’s Hospitals (Barts), The London Chest Hospital)
Tel: 020 7377 7000.
Web site: http://www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk/

Hospital performance

If you want to find out about the performance of different hospitals and how patients have rated them over the last five years, you can use the NHS Choices web site or the Healthcare Commission web site.

Top Tips

• Discuss hospital treatment and tests with your GP.
• Use the NHS Choices web site to choose your hospital, compare hospitals and give feedback on your experience.
• Use the hospital PALS service to ask specific questions.
• Use the Healthcare Commission web site to compare performance.
• Use the Choose and Book web site to change your appointment to suit you.
• Give us feedback on your experience using our PALS service.