Your Right to Choose - NHS Mental Health assessment and treatment in England

If you are registered with a GP surgery in England and you are referred by a GP to a consultant or specialist in mental health, you have the legal right to choose the organisation (qualified provider) to whom you are referred, as long as that organisation is providing that service in another part of England.

The service that you choose has to have an NHS contract to provide appropriate diagnosis and treatment services with Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), in order to fulfil the criteria to be a qualified provider under the NHS Right to Choose. As long as your GP feels a referral is appropriate, they can make a referral to the service of your choice which will enable you to get your treatment paid for by the NHS.

Please check before you request a referral, that the organisation you choose for your treatment has an NHS contract with Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB. If they do not have an NHS contract with the ICB, the surgery will not be able to support treatment (which means the surgery will not prescribe medications suggested by the specialist).