Right to Choose

Letter to your GP

Fill in the form below to generate a printable letter for your GP. The letter sets out your situation and the NHS hospital you would prefer to be referred to under your Right to Choose.

Step 1 of 2

Which hospital and treatment?

Pick the NHS trust you would like to be referred to and the specialty or treatment you need. Your selection is saved to this browser only.

NHS trust you'd like to be referred to

Specialty / treatment

Pick both a trust and a specialty to continue. You can still type your personal details below in the meantime.

Step 1b · Your situation

Which best describes you? This changes what the letter asks your GP to do.

New referralMy GP hasn't referred me yet, or I'm about to be referred for the first time.I'm already on a waiting list (switching trust)I already have an NHS referral and want my GP's help to move it to a different trust.

Fill in your details

Your details are saved to this browser only and are never sent to our servers. When you print, we count the print and which of the two letters it is. If you come back more than 7 days after your last change, they are deleted instead of restored; on a shared computer, press “Clear saved details” when you have finished. Postcodes are looked up via postcodes.io.

About you

First name

Last name

Date of birth

Tap to pick from a calendar. Shown on the letter as e.g. 12 April 1958.

NHS number (optional)

10 digits — found on letters from the NHS or in the NHS App.

Your postcode

We use postcodes.io to verify — your postcode is not stored on our servers.

Address line 1

House number + street (e.g. 14 Acacia Avenue).

Address line 2

Town, city, or district.

About your GP

Don't know your GP's name? It's on any repeat prescription or in the NHS App under “Your health”. The surgery name is enough if you don't see a named GP.

GP's name (optional)

e.g. Dr Sarah Patel — leave blank if you don't have a named GP.

GP practice / surgery name

Type the exact name from your repeat prescription or the NHS App.

GP practice postcode

Optional — helps verify the surgery address.

Surgery address line 1 (optional)

Surgery address line 2 (optional)

About your current waiting list

These details help your GP confirm where you are now and write a clear request to the current trust to release your slot.

Trust you're currently waiting at

The hospital or NHS trust that holds your current referral.

Months waited so far (optional)

Roughly how long since your GP first referred you.

Estimated remaining wait, in weeks (optional)

What the current trust has told you, or what HospitalWaits estimates.

Your browser will offer “Save as PDF” in the print dialog.

This is a template you can edit before printing. Your GP will discuss whether switching is the right call for your specific situation — this is not medical advice.

30 October 2026

[Your full name]

[Your address line 1]

[Your address line 2]

[Your postcode]

NHS number: [Your NHS number, if known]

[Your GP's name]

[Your GP surgery]

Re: Request to transfer my [your specialty / treatment] referral from [your current trust] to [the hospital you'd prefer]

Dear Dr [GP's name],

I am writing to ask for your help to move my existing NHS referral for [your specialty / treatment] from [your current trust] to [the hospital you'd prefer].

I understand from the NHS Choice Framework that the legal right to choose a provider applies at the point of referral, and that I can also ask to be referred to a different provider if I have waited, or will wait, more than 18 weeks to start non-urgent consultant-led treatment. I understand that request is normally made to the hospital treating me or to my integrated care board (ICB), and I will contact them too if that is the right route.

I have been waiting at [your current trust] for approximately [X] months. The remaining wait there is estimated to be [the estimated remaining wait] weeks. I would like to ask whether transferring my referral to [the hospital you'd prefer] is the right option for me — I understand this is a clinical question for you to decide together with me.

I have looked at publicly available NHS waiting-time data to compare waits between trusts that provide this treatment. I understand that moving may not shorten my wait, and that it is only worthwhile if the wait at the new trust is materially shorter than the remaining wait at my current trust.

If you agree that transferring is reasonable, I would be grateful if you could:

Make a new outpatient referral to [the hospital you'd prefer] for [your specialty / treatment], on the same clinical grounds as my current referral; and
Notify [your current trust] that I am withdrawing from their waiting list so my slot can be released to another patient.

I understand this is my decision and that you may wish to discuss whether switching is the best option for my specific clinical situation. If there is a clinical reason not to transfer the referral, I would be grateful if you could explain it so we can decide together.

For your reference, the NHS Choice Framework is published by the Department of Health and Social Care at www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-choice-framework, NHS England's patient choice guidance is at www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/patient-choice-guidance/, and patient choices are also described on the NHS website at www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-the-nhs/your-choices-in-the-nhs/.

Please confirm in writing (or via the NHS App message system) once the new referral has been made and the existing one has been cancelled.

Yours sincerely,

Signed: __________________________________

Dated: __________________________________

Print name: __________________________________

Disclaimer: this is a template letter, not legal advice. Right to Choose covers the first outpatient appointment for most elective conditions; some specialised pathways are excluded. See /right-to-choose for the full guide.

Letter to your GP

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