Access to our services

The NHS Constitution gives patients the right to access services within maximum waiting times, or for the NHS to take all reasonable steps to offer them a range of suitable alternative providers if this is not possible.

You can read more about waiting times on the NHS Choices website.

There are several guiding principles which must underpin the pathway for our planned care patients. These guiding principles are detailed in our Access Policy for Planned Care Services policy and include:

• Access to our services is based on clinical need and irrespective of gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief.
• The planning and delivery of our services must be focused on patient experience.
• Our services must reflect the needs and preferences of patients, their families and their carers through the provision of choice wherever possible.
• The NHS works across organisational boundaries and in partnership with other organisations in the interests of patients and the wider population.
• Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust is committed to providing the best possible value for money to deliver the most effective and fair use of finite resources
• All services are accountable for supplying adequate and suitable capacity to meet the needs of their patients.

This policy is made available so that patients and/or their carers understand what to expect from us as we deliver our obligations under the NHS Constitution and the contracts we have with our commissioners.

Click here to download the Access Policy For Planned Care Services