Choose and Book was an E-Booking software application for the National Health Service (NHS) in England which enabled patients needing an outpatient appointment to choose which hospital they were referred to by their general practitioner (GP), and to book a convenient date and time for their appointment.
Originally designed simply as an electronic booking system, Choose and Book was developed to enable patient hospital choice. It was introduced into the NHS from 2005 onwards. It was procured as part of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in 2003. The contract was awarded to Schlumberger Limited's Sema division just before its acquisition by Atos Origin. The software is based on Cerner Corporation's Millennium e-Booking software.
Surgery where immediate treatment is required is not in the remit of Choose and Book since such patients' needs bypass any longer-term queuing systems.
Choose and Book has been replaced by the NHS e-Referral Service which was to have started in 2014 but was postponed until 2015 after it failed an assessment by the Government Digital Service.[1]