>What was once a universal healthcare system is actually no longer: In England, General Practitioners are required to write to patients and remove them from the register if they do not confirm receipt of the letter. This means being homeless without an address means emergency-only care, at least according to policy. [3]
Thank you for helping to register this patient. We hope the patient was able to show you relevant documents. NHS Guidelines say ‘If a patient cannot produce any supportive documentation but states that they reside within the practice boundary then practices should accept the registration’.
Please be aware that a homeless patient cannot be refused registration on the basis of where they reside because they are not in settled accommodation. For safety reasons they may need to change the places where they sleep rough on a daily basis. There is no regulatory requirement to prove identity, address, immigration status or an NHS number in order to register as a patient and no contractual requirement for GPs to request this.
Those who are homeless, vulnerably housed or ‘of no fixed abode’, asylum seekers, refugees and overseas visitors, whether lawfully in the UK or not, are eligible to register with a GP practice even if they have to pay for NHS services outside of the GP practice. The patient MUST be registered on application unless the practice has reasonable grounds to decline. GP practices have limited grounds on which they can turn down an application and these are;
if The commissioner has agreed that they can close their list to new
patients.
It appears, according to that leaflet, that I was, and that central policy is that people should be able to register without fixed address.
It does seem that at least one homelessness charity[0] has taken up a campaign around this, so it may well be an implementation detail within individual GP practices that leads to accounts such as:
> "Early in our frontline delivery, staff reported difficulties in supporting people to register with a GP." [0]
I think you are misinformed
per https://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/doctors/Docum...
Message to the GP Practice
Thank you for helping to register this patient. We hope the patient was able to show you relevant documents. NHS Guidelines say ‘If a patient cannot produce any supportive documentation but states that they reside within the practice boundary then practices should accept the registration’.
Please be aware that a homeless patient cannot be refused registration on the basis of where they reside because they are not in settled accommodation. For safety reasons they may need to change the places where they sleep rough on a daily basis. There is no regulatory requirement to prove identity, address, immigration status or an NHS number in order to register as a patient and no contractual requirement for GPs to request this.
Those who are homeless, vulnerably housed or ‘of no fixed abode’, asylum seekers, refugees and overseas visitors, whether lawfully in the UK or not, are eligible to register with a GP practice even if they have to pay for NHS services outside of the GP practice. The patient MUST be registered on application unless the practice has reasonable grounds to decline. GP practices have limited grounds on which they can turn down an application and these are;
if The commissioner has agreed that they can close their list to new patients.
The patient lives outside the practice boundary.