Patients aren’t using quality measures when choosing a hospital to be treated at, research reveals.

The survey of over 2,000 patients, by the Kings Fund, shows that past experience, advice from friends and family or their GP influence their decision most. Only 4% had looked at NHS Choices - the government’s website for patients that provides data on hospital performance.

Since April 2008, patients referred by their GP for a specialist outpatient consultation have had a choice of any NHS or registered independent sector provider in England. This has been supported by the introduction of an electronic booking system, Choose and Book, but only half of eligible appointments were booked using the system in September 2009.

Half of respondents being referred said they were offered a choice of hospital; of those, 49% said they were given two options, 49% between three and five options, and 2% more than five options.

Patients offered a choice were only slightly more likely to travel to a non-local hospital (29%) than those who were not offered a choice (21%).

Almost half of respondents had been aware that they would have a choice before attending their GP, and those aware of choice were more likely to say they had been offered a choice of provider.

Patients were most likely to have been offered a choice by their GP (60%), in a letter outlining the options (21%), or by a telephone-booking adviser (20%).

Dr Anna Dixon, report co-author and director of policy at The King’s Fund, said: “There is still some way to go before choice is fully embedded in the NHS. Patients are not actively comparing hospitals or using performance data to select the highest quality provider, instead they continue to rely on their own experience or the advice of their GP.

“There is a wealth of information available for patients and GPs in official reports and on government websites. If policy makers want patient choice to drive up quality more needs to be done to let patients know this information is available and make the data relevant, accessible and easy to use.”

Read the full report.