Patient choice drive 'will impact on NHS staff'.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

Healthcare professionals will have to use more of their time to help patients make decisions under the government drive to introduce choice in public services, health minister Lord Warner said today.

The focus on nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals to provide patients with ample information on which to base their choices will have a "time and money cost", he told a fringe meeting at the Labour party conference.

"We know that patients will not make the choice on their own," he said.

Lord Warner said the public was clamouring for a greater say over what treatment was available and where to receive …