Two-thirds of patients re-ferred under Choose and Book are not being given a choice of appointment date or time, say researchers at University College London.

This particular Government wheeze is totally flawed. For patients the website is useless. ( I tried for 45 minutes and got nowhere). When I phoned there was no choice - I was told when the appointment date and time would be, and no information about the consultant.

It worked perfectly for me as a patient.  In less than 5 mins I had chosen an appointment at the hospital near to home.  I waited just one week.  The letter arrived quickly containing all the info any patient would need.   The consultation was excellent and on time.  All follow up investigations ran perfectly, not waiting more than 20 mins for any of the tests.
My concern is not the functioning of the system but the fundamental idea.  If patients choose the better hospitals, either the specialists will have to work even longer hours, give shorter consultations or their waiting lists will get longer; or the patients go to see doctors who would not have been recommended by their GP.
Did you know that the government has spent more money on this, than Microsoft spent on Vista?