Why I built ShorterWait

Every week in my surgery I see patients who have been waiting months, sometimes over a year, for a specialist appointment. What most of them don't know, and what I didn't feel I had time to explain properly in a 10-minute consultation, is that they have a legal right to choose a different hospital, one with a shorter wait.

That right is written into the NHS Constitution and has been in law since the Health Act 2009. But exercising it requires knowing which hospitals have shorter waits, and how to ask your GP to make the switch. Most patients never find out. Most GPs, overwhelmed with appointments, don't proactively raise it.

I built ShorterWait to close that gap. It pulls real waiting time data directly from NHS England and shows you, in plain English, which hospitals near you have the shortest waits for your specialty. No sign-up required. No medical advice. Just the data you're entitled to see.

The Switch Pack (the letter template, the conversation guide, and the patient rights summary) is what I wish I could hand every patient who walks into my surgery. It gives you the words to use, the legal references to cite, and the confidence to ask.

You've already waited long enough.