PATIENTS are to be given the chance to write restaurant-style reviews of doctors and hospitals on a website being set up by the government. They will be able to post online praise or complaints about the quality of service and the standard of the premises.

Had to wait ages for your liver transplant to arrive? Was your GP surly in serving up your diagnosis? Patients will be able to vent their criticisms as consumers frequently do for hotels and restaurants and for products sold on Amazon.

The website, to be announced this week by Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, is to provide the public with a consumer-friendly guide to GPs’ surgeries and hospitals, encouraging them to “shop around” for the best treatment.

“Patients should be able to reflect their experience,” said a government source. “They may wish to say, ‘I had great treatment but the food was not very good’.

“Or they may say, ‘It wasn’t very clean and I had shoddy treatment’. We hope this process will raise the game to allow patients to exercise their choice.”

The website, due to go live this summer, is likely to provoke a backlash from doctors and nurses, who fear that patients who become “theatre critics” may give a distorted picture of their work. Hospitals rated a “smash hit” might run for years, but those given a panning could face financial penalties as patients chose to go elsewhere.

Government sources admitted there might be potential libel risks with the reviews and there would need to be “moderation” of the site.

Ministers have become increasingly frustrated at the pace of NHS reform, which has been obstructed by doctors’ and nurses’ unions. Only a minority of patients — about 32% — are choosing to exercise their right to pick where they are treated rather than simply going to the nearest hospital, undermining attempts by the government to introduce a market.

The government believes more accessible information will encourage more choice. The website will begin with hospitals before extending to GPs, detailing how quickly they answer the phone or offer appointments, and how long they remain open.

Last week Hewitt admitted the amount of money GPs can take out of surgeries’ profits should have been capped after family doctors’ salaries rose by 33% last year to an average of more than £100,000.

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