criteria. This meant that a GP could, via CaB, offer their patients the choice of four or more local providers, and the option of any Foundation Trust or accredited independent sector hospital in England. The Government's intention was that when patients were able to choose between their local NHS Hospital and any accredited private hospital in England, standards would rise (known as 'contestability'). In March 2007 the first independent sector hospitals became available as directly bookable options from within Choose and Book. From April 2008, 'Free Choice' policy meant that patients could choose from any clinically appropriate and accredited provider in England. Since the deployment of Release 4.0 of the application in May 2008, referrers could select from two menus: "Search Primary Care", which only showed services provided by the PCT or by smaller local providers, or "Search All", which showed services provided by all accredited providers in England. One criticism of this policy is that patients and their referring clinicians needed more meaningful information to make a genuinely informed choice, some of which is provided by the NHS website "Find and Choose a Hospital" comparison feature. References External links Choose and Book Official site Find out about hospital choice in the NHS Compare NHS hospital services BMA Choose and Book Guidance BBC News report on problems National Health Service (England) Government services web portals in the United Kingdom Health care software