Member of Parliament for Burton and Uttoxeter, Kate Kniveton, has written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay MP, to urge the Government to give patients more say over their GP surgery and greater peace of mind that they will remain registered with their practice, even following a change of personal circumstances.
Currently, GPs are able to remove patients from their practice list, without the patient's consent, when they move out of area. As an MP, Ms Kniveton hears from constituents who have moved to a new address which may only be a matter of minutes away from their previous address but falls outside the catchment area of their existing GP. This leads to incidents of patients being moved onto the practice list of another surgery which might be further away from them, without any prior consultation.
In her correspondence to the Secretary of State, the local MP highlighted the Prime Minister’s commitment to ensure that patients are in control of their healthcare, urging for a review of the current policy on GP catchment areas and the GP practice’s right to remove patients from their list without consent.
Commenting, Kate Kniveton MP, said:
“Being able to choose which GP practice you are registered with is a hugely important part of patient autonomy. For many people moving home, changing your GP practice will be something you would actively wish to do. However, for those who are staying local and have a good relationship to their existing GP, they may strongly wish to stay with their current medical practice.
“It cannot be right that existing policy can result in a patient being removed from a GP practice’s books without any prior consultation or notice. This causes a great deal of concern and distress to many patients who are moved from their preferred GP practice, often who they have been registered with for many years and find themselves expected to travel miles across town to go to a new practice.
I have urged the Health Secretary to review this and to ensure that patients have greater control over the primary healthcare they receive.”
