Patient Choice Schemes
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential risks of system level Single Point Of Access (SPOA) on patient choice; and what guidance his Department will issue to integrated care boards to ensure SPOA use is in line with NHS patient choice rights.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The policy intention for the Elective Single Point of Access (SPoA) model is fully compatible with NHS England’s Patient Choice Guidance, published in December 2023. Patients must continue to be offered a choice of provider at the appropriate point in the pathway, and local pathways should be designed to ensure that choice rights operate in practice.
SPoA acts as a single ‘front door’ to support clinical triage to the most appropriate service or outcome, meaning timelier, more joined-up care for patients, without altering patients’ statutory right to choice.
NHS England has published system guidance, The Elective Single Point of Access: Technical Guidance for 2026/27, which specifies that patients must continue to be offered a choice of provider and team at the appropriate point in the pathway when they can make an informed choice. An elective SPoA diagram showing touchpoints of choice is included in the technical guidance annex.
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