This is based on professional assessment of needs, clinical appropriateness, and, inevitably, competing demands for finite resources. An adult patient with the mental capacity to make all their own decisions cannot require a particular treatment or care package to be offered by the NHS or social care — it is not their decision to make. A child or adult who lacks capacity for some decisions does not receive any preferential treatment in resource allocation.
If you want to challenge a decision not to offer a particular treatment or care package, you should seek legal advice about applying for a judicial review of that decision.
If treatment or a care package is being offered — or if more than one option is available — a decision must be made by, or for, the patient about whether to accept, refuse, or choose between the options.
If a patient cannot make their own decision, then a best interests decision must be made.
Best interests decisions are choices among the available options, made on behalf of someone who cannot decide for themselves. They are not about offering different options than would be available to anyone else in the same situation.
