Do you need to be registered with a GP in the UK?

[lindsay]

A question for UK liveaboards, itinerant, or otherwise living without a clear fixed address.

Can you get access to the NHS in the UK without being registered formerly with a GP??

On trawling the internet, it would seem that you can use one of or all of the following, presuming you have a NHS number

1. A nurse led walk in centre
2. A GP led walk in centre(not Health Clinic)
3. The A&E section of any hospital

i can see that if you are unlucky enough to have a chronic condition that requires careful and regular followup you would need ideally one GP who knows you, but otherwise why register and wrestle with catchment areas, utility bills etc


Any first hand experience appreciated

 

[Tranona]

This is a minefield. While you may be treated at A&E without having a GP you will find difficulty accessing any other services. The whole system is based on the GP being the gateway to other services, including prescription drugs. You can only see a hospital specialist with a referral from a GP. In addition if you are spending time abroad you may lose your right to NHS treatment. although in practice this is unlikely provided you go through a GP when you get back. What people have experienced is after getting treatment abroad and then needing follow up in UK that hospitals may not accept you without a GP referral.

So, the short answer is the system requires you to be registered with a GP, and has difficulty in coping with people who do not conform to societal norms.

 

[maby]

There are private GPs that will see anyone for a fee - I relied on them for a couple of years when I was moving around a lot. They are not cheap - I seem to remember paying upwards of £100 for a consultation - and that was at least 10 years ago. A web search for "private GP" throws up quite a few hits.

 

[lindsay]

Good reminder re private gp's.

BUPA promoting its Private GP Service for 70 gbp appointment lasting 15 minutes, so, a fast talker could get 13 or 14 minutes of the great man's time? Pay by cash or credit card on the spot.

 

[skipperwales]

Everybody entitled to NHS services can register with an NHS GP. Patients can register permanently, or as temporary residents if they will be living in an area for less than three months. Practices can only close their lists with the agreement of the local primary care organisation ( clinical commissioning groups in England ). If a patient has difficulty in finding a practice to register them, then the PCO can and will allocate them to a practice.
The stuff about utility bills etc. is a political drive from the government to get GPs to police access to NHS services by those who may not be entitled. Its applied variably across the country and you simply have to provide evidence of entitlement and an address. I can't see why passport and a receipt from a marina wouldn't be sufficient. DOI jobbing GP.

 

[duncan99210]

We I initially simply used our last GP. Didn't tell them we'd moved aboard the boat and set off for the Med.

At that time, we were using my brothers address as our foot on the ground in the UK for all the admin guff. Eventually, the GP needed to send us something by post and asked for an up to date address. Cat out of bag, so we reregistered with a practice local to my brother. That worked just fine until my brother decided to move on to a narrowboat....... And so it continues. Whilst we keep a UK address there isn't a problem in keeping on a GPs books. We need to have a UK address for all sorts of admin reasons so that keeps us on the GPs books....... Bit circular I know, but it works for us.

Never been asked for utility bills or anything like that. Simply turn up, give your address and the practice puts you their books. Usually they'll want to do a set of tests on arrival to determine you're still alive but that no bad thing.

 

[GrahamM376]

Never been asked for utility bills or anything like that. Simply turn up, give your address and the practice puts you their books. Usually they'll want to do a set of tests on arrival to determine you're still alive but that no bad thing.

When we moved towns a few years ago, we registered with a different practice. All they wanted was our completed medical record cards.

 

[Bru]

The key to the question posed by the OP is whether or not you have a UK address at which you are resident for legal purposes

By that I mean that as far as the authorities are concerned the address is where you live, not just a mail drop.

If you don't have access to an address where you're on the electoral role etc you are considered to be of no fixed abode and access to all sorts of services becomes very difficult

It's best avoided if at all possible which is one of the reasons we've downsized rather than selling up completely

(I've known a few liveaboard canal boaters who've fallen into the no fixed abode trap and it can be a nightmare especially if you later develop a long term or chronic medical condition)

 

[KellysEye]

For liveaboards in the UK the marina and yacht name are your fixed address so should be no problem signing up with a GP. Once you become not resident and not ordinally resident, which we were, you lose the right to access a GP and A&E. However we had a mailing address in the UK, for post to be sent to us, we could probably got away with getting NHS treatment using that.

 

[laika]

For liveaboards in the UK the marina and yacht name are your fixed address so should be no problem signing up with a GP.

Have you tried that often without the benefit of an official residential mooring?

I posted a question the year before last:
http://forums.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?436938-Registering-with-a-doctor


There are no official requirements for proof of address but all the GPs I spoke to wanted it in the form of utility bills, driving licence etc. One was willing to take my marina contract as proof of address after a fellow forumite advised me that one practice had accepted that before but that doesn't appear to be a standard "proof" and in my experience a significant number of GP receptionists have a distinctly misanthropic streak which limits their willingness to be flexible.

I believe temporary registration requires you being permanently registered elsewhere.

Denial of non-emergency healthcare to people who pay significant amounts of income tax but have "unconventional" living arrangements is pretty poor imho.