NHS England GP register and Travel Insurance

[unclebulgaria67]

Are people aware that NHS England is now allowing GP practices to de-register patients they have not seen for 5 years ?

 

This might mean that those who have not been to their Doctor for years are delayed in getting an appointment, because they have to register first. And those that fall ill on holiday, might have problems with Travel Insurance. If you have not seen a Doctor for years or are not registered with a Doctor, i would suggest that you arrange Insurance by phone, so you can make Insurers aware that you are not registered with Doctors, so they have no records to check in the event of a claim.

 

See this article. Grandmother faces a £5,000 medical bill despite taking out insurance

 

http://dailym.ai/2exhnGs

[Sali]

I think they have to send you two warning letters beforehand. That said, they could just say they have and there's little you could do to disprove it. Not sure where you'd stand if you insisted on being re-registered (I know my own practice is heaving at the seams) and trying to get the Ombudsman (or anyone else) to listen would be time-consuming at the very least, useless at the very worst.

[think about it]

Yep, the removal process which is known as an FP69 involves your local health authority writing to you twice and if they get no response whatsoever then the patient is flagged to the practice when we'll write again and try several times to contact you in writing and on your registered telephone numbers. If all of that fails then we have to assume that the patient is no longer at that address. The process is months end to end so unless you're on a round-the-world cruise for six months it's not going to happen whilst you're on holiday. The process also involves checking inpatient lists and taking account of someone's capacity to respond.

 

If you get the letter asking you to confirm you're still resident at your address and at the same practice don't ignore it and have the courtesy to ensure that your GP practice is on the list of people to tell if you change contact details.

[unclebulgaria67]

Good to know there is a full process involved and if people keep their GP practice/NHS records up to date by providing new address details, then there should not be a problem.

[Noah1]

Yep, the removal process which is known as an FP69 involves your local health authority writing to you twice and if they get no response whatsoever then the patient is flagged to the practice when we'll write again and try several times to contact you in writing and on your registered telephone numbers. If all of that fails then we have to assume that the patient is no longer at that address. The process is months end to end so unless you're on a round-the-world cruise for six months it's not going to happen whilst you're on holiday. The process also involves checking inpatient lists and taking account of someone's capacity to respond.

 

If you get the letter asking you to confirm you're still resident at your address and at the same practice don't ignore it and have the courtesy to ensure that your GP practice is on the list of people to tell if you change contact details.

 

Sounds reasonable to me. People fail to inform about change of their address. I have been receiving letters from the NHS with names that lived in the place before.