The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Channel 4 have reported that almost 80% of GP practices are refusing to register undocumented patients with a migrant background. The Covid-19 vaccine programme largely relies on GP registration and so this places whole communities at greater risk.
GP surgeries can only lawfully refuse a patient’s registration if it has “reasonable grounds” to do so. NHS policies in England and Scotland state that not having proof of address, ID or immigration status do not constitute reasonable grounds for refusal.
The #HandsUpForOurHealth coalition, which includes Doctors of the World is campaigning on this issue. As part of this they highlight the Safe Surgeries initiative - a network GP practices can join.
A Safe Surgery can be any GP practice which commits to taking steps to tackle the barriers faced by many migrants in accessing healthcare. At a minimum, this means GPs declaring a practice a ‘Safe Surgery’ for everyone and ensuring that lack of ID or proof of address, immigration status or language are not barriers to patient registration.
Doctors of the World are offering the following support to Safe Surgeries:
User-friendly resources to support practice staff, like our Toolkit, simple guides to NHS entitlement and translated patient-facing posters;
Network events to facilitate learning and collaboration between members;
Training for clinical and non-clinical staff on migrants’ entitlement to NHS care common barriers and good practice;
Our quarterly newsletter, providing news and case studies from members, analysis of relevant policy changes, new research, events and other resources.
For more information, contact safesurgeries@doctorsoftheworld.org.uk.
A handy tool for finding an existing NHS number.
An NHS England and NHS Improvement letter to help people without an NHS number access the COVID-19 vaccine and register with a GP - you can also view this below, translations will be available soon:
