- Important information about Registrations
- How to register new patients
- Registering Regular patients
- Patient data we should capture
- New Patient Health Questionnaire and GP2GP
- Registering Temporary patients
- Registering children
- Out-of-area patients
- Limitations on registration for out of area patients
- 🏡 Home visits
- 🏥 Secondary care
- 🚫 Frequent DNA/Cancellation due to travel issues
- Updating details
Important information about Registrations
- Patient lists at all our practices remain open and we will continue to register new patients.
- It is the NHS UK policy that anyone may register with a GP practice, regardless of nationality and residential status. This means that we should register homeless people, asylum seekers, overseas visitors, etc. whether they are lawfully in the UK or not.
- When registering new patients, we must NOT be asking for proof of address / identification / immigration status. This is important to ensure equity of access for patients. It is also a key part of our Adult Safeguarding policy and the Safe Surgeries initiative.
- If a patient is concerned about sharing their home address, you can register them with an alternative address where post might reach them. For example:
- a friend’s address
- the GP surgery address
- address of a mosque, church or community centre
- We can register new patients who reside outside of our catchment area. See ‘Out-of-area patients’ section below for more details.
- Gender Reassignment on Patient Records and registrations will be handled by Reception Leads.
If a practice refuses any patient registration, they must record the name, date and reason for the refusal and write to the patient within 14 days explaining why they have been refused.
How to register new patients
From the dropdown list, select if the patient is the patient a Temporary registrant or Regular (intends to be permanent patient). This process is the same whether the patient is an Adult or Child.
Registering Regular patients
- Go to the Registrations folder in Generic Surgery Inbox to retrieve online forms.
- Fill out all asterisked (*) fields and add NHS number if it is known, as this will automatically load patient data. Alternatively, you can use the patients’ name.
- The Add Regular Patient screen contains six sub-screens (see box on the right for notes on each page ➡️). Fill out all asterisked (*) fields.
- When all the ticks next to each sub screen are green, then press OK to complete the patient registration.
Patient data we should capture
To best serve the patient, some information is really important to have in the record.
- Main spoken language
- Ethnicity
- Carer information
- Special needs requirements
New Patient Health Questionnaire and GP2GP
All new patients will be required to complete a New Patient Health Questionnaire (NHS GMS1 Form). This is ideally done online (direct them to the website for filling out form). If they are unable to do it online, they can get a paper form from reception.
- Once the patient is registered, upload the Registration form into the consultation notes: Print to PDF → Attach Document. The type of document is:
- Patient registration for online forms
- Patient registration GMS1 for paper forms
- Registrations with a valid Personal Demographics Service (PDS) search will initiate GP2GP transfer automatically (see Electronic Records Transfer (GP2GP))
Registering Temporary patients
Patients can register as Temporary if they plan to live near the GP surgery for up to 3 months. After 3 months, a Temporary patient will have to register as a Regular patient if they intend to stay with the surgery.
NB. For temporary patients, information is not passed from their previous GP to us and vice versa.
Registering children
The process for registering a child is the same as for adults (see above). If registering a parent/guardian and a child at the same time, you should register the parent first and then wait until their registration goes through before registering child.
However, when registering children we should also check the following to ensure there are no safeguarding concerns (see Child Safeguarding).
- Who is the person registering the child (i.e. mother, father, legal guardian)?
- If a child under the age of 16 attempts to register alone, or with an adult who does not have parental responsibility for the child, the Safeguarding Lead and Reception Lead should be informed via Task.
- Is the person registering the child also registered with us?
- If not, inform the Reception Lead and check with them first.
- Reception lead should ascertain why none of the parents are registered with us and why the child cannot be registered at parent’s practice, and then discuss with the Safeguarding lead before registering child.
- If the child is of school age, what school do they go to?
- Do they have siblings? If so, are they also registered with us?
- Do they have a social worker?
- Where was the child registered before?
Out-of-area patients
An ‘out-of-area’ patient refers to a new patient wishing to register with us who does not currently live in our catchment area.
- All out-of-area patients should be given information about the limitations on registration (see below ⬇️) but patients can and should still be registered unless there are significant concerns about their ability to come into the practice and/or accept the limitations.
- If a patient is elderly and/or has complex issues, they are very likely to require the services that are limited for out-of-area patients. Therefore, it is best to check with Reception Lead first, rather than accepting/rejecting the patient outright.
- If a patient who is already on our list moves out of the catchment area, but still wishes to remain on our list, they may do so if they understand, agree to and sign a disclaimer acknowledging the limitations of their registration.
- Students should not be registered in two places. Instead, they should be registered with a practice near their university residence, and if they need care while at home, should be seen as Temporary residents.
- Children under 5 years old must reside in the borough of registration (this is a child safeguarding issue).
Limitations on registration for out of area patients
🏡 Home visits
We do not provide home visits to out of area patients, so when registering, this should be clearly expressed to the patient before registering.
🏥 Secondary care
Many secondary care providers base access to their services on patients’ post codes, so referrals to these services could be rejected. We can push back on this, but patients should be informed that this could happen and that referrals may take extra time to complete.
🚫 Frequent DNA/Cancellation due to travel issues
If an out-of-area patient is finding it difficult to keep appointments because of travel issues, this could result in removal of the patient from our lists. When registering an out-of-area patient, we should sensitively make them aware of how important it is to keep their F2F appointment times.
Updating details
- Click ‘EMIS’ and click Registrations
- Select the required patient
- On the ribbon, click Edit Patient
- Edit the details as required click OK
You should never ask for proof of address (see also Adult Safeguarding Safe surgeries section and Gender Reassignment on Patient Records).