Join the Practice

Before filling out a registration form, check you are in our catchment area.

Find out with GPs you can register with on the NHS website.

To register with the surgery:

• fill out an online registration form
• visit reception from 8am to 6.30pm and collect a paper registration form

When you register, it’s helpful to have your NHS number. This is your unique ID number linking you to your medical records. You can use the NHS website or  find your NHS number here.

However, you do not need proof of address or immigration status, ID or an NHS number to register at the practice.

If you are ill while away from home or if you are not registered with a doctor but need to see one you can receive emergency treatment from the local GP practice for 14 days. After 14 days you will need to register as a temporary or permanent patient.

You can be registered as a temporary patient for up to three months. This will allow you to be on the local practice list and still remain a patient of your permanent GP. After three months you will have to re-register as a temporary patient or permanently register with that practice.

To register as a temporary patient simply contact the local practice you wish to use. Practices do not have to accept you as a temporary patient although they do have an obligation to offer emergency treatment. You cannot register as a temporary patient at a practice in the town or area where you are already registered.

• To treat all staff with respect.
• To keep appointments or to let us know in good time if you are not able to attend, in order for the appointment to be offered to another patient.
• To tell us immediately if you change your address or telephone number.

Your Rights as a Patient

• New patients will be offered a new patient health check within six months of registering with the practice.
• Patients will not be removed from the list without first receiving a warning, and a reason will be given for this.

From 1st April 2015, practices are required to allocate all patients (including children) with a named accountable GP.

The named GP is responsible for the coordination and delivery of all appropriate services, where required based on clinical judgement, to each of their patients.

• Patients do not need to see their named GP when they book an appointment with the practice.
• Patients are entitled to choose to see any GP or nurse in the practice.

• You have a right to choose a GP within the practice either for one appointment or generally, but this may mean you will have to wait longer for an appointment. Also, the GP may refuse to see you if there are reasonable grounds, or you could be asked to see another GP if you are requesting a particular service which is provided by another clinician within the practice.
• You have a right to an appointment, regardless of whether or not you have been seen within the last 3 years (12 months if over 75).

These fact sheets have been written to explain the role of UK health services, the National Health Service (NHS), to newly-arrived individuals seeking asylum. They cover issues such as the role of GPs, their function as gatekeepers to the health services, how to register and how to access emergency services.

Special care has been taken to ensure that information is given in clear language, and the content and style has been tested with user groups.

Open the leaflets in one of the following languages: