Explains your rights to social care, and how this differs from healthcare. Includes information on eligibility, needs assessments, financial assessments, and how local authorities may meet your needs.
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You have certain rights about the healthcare treatment you receive:
If you feel that your healthcare rights haven't been respected, then you can make a complaint about this. See our legal pages on complaining about health and social care for more information.
Primary care services are your first point of contact in the healthcare system (such as your GP or pharmacist). You have the right to make certain choices about the primary care you receive.
Secondary care services are those which you generally need a referral from a GP to use (such as hospitals or community mental health teams (CMHTs)). You have the right to make certain choices about the secondary care you receive.
Geoff has a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and visits his GP to be referred for treatment. His friend, who also has the same diagnosis, has told him that she has been treated by a consultant psychiatrist who has been very helpful to her.
Geoff discusses this with his GP who uses the NHS e-Referral Service to search for this consultant psychiatrist and find out where she works. Geoff’s GP creates a list for him and gives him log-in details for the service.
At home, Geoff logs into the e-Referral Service and researches the various organisations the psychiatrist works at. He selects one which is fairly close to his home and books an appointment.
Geoff will be treated by his chosen health care specialist or a member of her team at the organisation and location of his choice.
For tips on how to be more involved in any decisions about your healthcare treatment, see our pages on making sense of your options and being actively involved.
'Protected characteristics' is the name for the nine personal characteristics that are protected from discrimination under the Equality Act.
They are:
See our pages on disability discrimination for more information.
See our full list of legal terms.Care and Treatment Planning is a way that secondary mental health services are assessed, planned, coordinated and reviewed for someone that lives in Wales. It comes from a law called the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010.
Secondary mental health services include the community mental health team (CMHT), assertive outreach team and early intervention team.
You should get:
See our pages on leaving hospital for more information.
See our full list of legal terms.This information was published in February 2018. We will revise it in 2020.
References are available on request. If you would like to reproduce any of this information, see our page on permissions and licensing.