Choice is at the heart of the Government's healthcare agenda. Patients will be offered new choices in hospital treatment, and primary care. But current government policy risks worsening inequities in healthcare - choice should aim to do more than create a market: it should improve outcomes and reduce inequality.

Equitable Choices for Health is now available to purchase.

In July and August 2005, ippr and Health Link conducted a mini consultation with community organisations to find out how disadvantaged patients could be supported in making choices about their health care. The consultation findings were incorporated into the ippr report Equitable Choices for Health.

The consultation aimed to find out how community organisations could play a role in

• supporting patients who face barriers to choice, to make the best choices for them
• feeding patients’ preferences and experiences back to the NHS to help improve its services.

This report (see below) summarises the results of the consultation with a small number of community organisations with whom Health Link had previously consulted on Choice at the Point of Referral.