General Chat

Today i went to register with a new doctor which has opened up down the road as i am not happy with the one i am with. i asked for a registation form the women behind the counter said what,s your post code which i gave her she then said sorry your not in the catchment erea. i said sorry what did you say i thenasked what was the postcode of the surgury she told me i said the same as mine and that i only lived six doors away oh she si ok fill in the form and bring it back with to forms of id whats this world comming to id,s for the doctors.

Oh dear :-( I hope you have better luck with the gp Michael

I had a similar thing recently.
I think it is to ensure that you are entitled to NHS care.
But I hope that is the only hiccup you suffer (no pun intended).

Handy to have a GP so close. Lets hope that once you are through all the formalities you wont be requiring their services too often :-)

The receptionist at mine had us jumping through hoops before they would put my OH on the list even though the rest of the family are all registered there.......because his passport had expired (we did have other ID ) eventually they gave way

Yes you do have to provide two forms of id, one photographic to proove who you are and one proof of address. This is to stop people using the NHS for free when they are not entiltled to do so.

it has been mentioned on a number of thread,s on GR, saying the NHS should do more to stop illegal immigrants from using our NHS for free when thy should be made to pay for it. By asking for ID they are trying to do just that and the NHS is being condemed again.

However there is no excuse for any of the staff to be rude to anyone.That is not acceptable.

As for the postcode bit. I agree with you I would also be annoyed if I had been turned away from them when I lived just a few doors away. I believe the reason behind only excepting people in a certain postcode is so that if the DR has to do a home visit he can actually get to them in a reasonable amount of time aswwell as visit all the other patients that need home visits. At the surgery i go to they can have between 5-7 home visits a day per DR and I think they have to do them inabout an hour, before returning to the surgery for the next surgery session.

Also the decisions about things like ID are not made in the Healthcentres. I'm not sure who makes these rules but the GPs and receptionists have to stick to them. .As first point of contact the reception staff get the flack.

I noticed a large sign in my surgery's window. 'We Welcome Patients from outside Westminster'.. We also have a daily walk-in clinic from 9am to 12pm and this includes Saturday and Sunday.

So I now have to sit in a tiny, packed surgery and get only the most cursory attention from the doctor. There must be a Grand Plan somewhere but I don't think it includes the welfare of us patients!.

But our reciptionists are lovely. :-)

We are just about to put our house on the market and, if it sells, move into our local town about 7 miles away. The only thing about the move I am dreading is changing doctors as all the staff at our current docs are really great. If I can find anywhere half as good I'll be happy.

thank you for your reply,s sorry not have replyed sooner i have been out alday. well i submitted my reg forms so far so good got to have a health check on friday morning then wait to see the doctor, oh what fun.

every Uk resident is issued with an NHS medical card, that should be the only thing required

Robert

You no longer get a new card when you register with a new doctor. But they are available on request.