Out of Area Registrations

New arrangements introduced from January 2015 give people greater choice when choosing a GP practice. Patients may approach any GP practice, even if they live outside the practice area, to see if they will be accepted on to the patient list.

This means GP practices now have the option to register patients who live outside the practice area but without any obligation to provide home visits.

If your application is considered the GP practice will only register you without home visits if it is clinically appropriate and practical in your individual case.

Factors we consider are:

1. There are clinical conditions or care needs which mean registration without the ability to do home visits would compromise clinical care, and the patient’s needs would be better met through registration with a practice near to where they live. (For example, the patient has complex long-term conditions that mean they are receiving a package of home-based care or community-based support which would be difficult for the practice to coordinate remotely; or, the patient relies on frequent home visits from their current GP practice.)

2. There are practical reasons which mean the patient is unlikely to benefit from out of area registration with the practice (for example, the patient is not spending frequent periods of time in or near the practice area where they wish to register.)

3.Safeguarding concerns around child and vulnerable adults.

If the practice decides it is not clinically appropriate or practical for the patient to be registered away from home there is no right of appeal for the patient against the decision (they may, however, make a complaint through the NHS complaints system as for any other decision). The practice must be able to give reasons as to why registration was declined. Given the limitations of this type of registration, it is not discriminatory to advise a patient is unsuitable for registration on clinical grounds. The practice remains free to offer registration in a usual way, as to any other patient i.e. with duty to provide home visits etc. but is not obliged to do so.

Register as an out of area patient

If you register through the normal channel, your out of area address will be visible to us and we will contact you for further discussion.