I’m sick of marching during the 1960/1970/1980 for the NHS and the people just carried on without a thought, we were even called hippies for demanding the NHS staff within public domain, it seems the people are happy for labour to sell it off or hock it into debt with PFI, so now we will see, but my marching days are over.

I’m sick of marching during the 1960/1970/1980 for the NHS and the people just carried on without a thought, we were even called hippies for demanding the NHS staff within public domain, it seems the people are happy for labour to sell it off or hock it into debt with PFI, so now we will see, but my marching days are over.

However, to attack NHS Choices without revealing how much it saves and how useful it is to the public is unfair. The Health Service Journal HSJ recently published an article showing that NHS Choices saves £45m a year, over twice its running costs, and that’s only what can be easily measured in the primary care setting.

The figure of 4% general public utilisation is also misleading. It’s true that a survey showed that only 4% of the population know what NHS Choices is but far more than 4% actually use it, they just don’t know that it’s called NHS Choices because the brand hasn’t been well marketed. Far more people know about NHS Direct and yet much of it is the same website. It’s very unlikely that a website that receives an average of eight million visitors a month is used by such a small number of people.

NHS Choices is far more than a hospital ratings system. It has information about many health conditions and treatments, visitors can find their local GPs, dentists, opticians and other medical practitioners, it shows details about hospitals such as car parking and directions and the services offered and it gives patients the ability to comment on their treatment.

Finally, showing what strengths and weaknesses a hospital has helps to drive standards up by showing where best practice occurs and where help is needed. I agree that we’d all like a good health service on our doorstep but the reality is that we will not get that without highlighting where standards are failing and then voting with our feet.

However, to attack NHS Choices without revealing how much it saves and how useful it is to the public is unfair. The Health Service Journal HSJ recently published an article showing that NHS Choices saves £45m a year, over twice its running costs, and that’s only what can be easily measured in the primary care setting.

The figure of 4% general public utilisation is also misleading. It’s true that a survey showed that only 4% of the population know what NHS Choices is but far more than 4% actually use it, they just don’t know that it’s called NHS Choices because the brand hasn’t been well marketed. Far more people know about NHS Direct and yet much of it is the same website. It’s very unlikely that a website that receives an average of eight million visitors a month is used by such a small number of people.

NHS Choices is far more than a hospital ratings system. It has information about many health conditions and treatments, visitors can find their local GPs, dentists, opticians and other medical practitioners, it shows details about hospitals such as car parking and directions and the services offered and it gives patients the ability to comment on their treatment.

Finally, showing what strengths and weaknesses a hospital has helps to drive standards up by showing where best practice occurs and where help is needed. I agree that we’d all like a good health service on our doorstep but the reality is that we will not get that without highlighting where standards are failing and then voting with our feet.