Patients Living Outside Our Catchment Area
If a patient is moving to a home that is located outside of our catchment area but within the Borough of Ealing and wishes to remain with us as a current patient then the following guidelines must be acknowledged:
We understand that some of our registered patients may wish to continue their affiliation with our practice for reasons of familiarity and ongoing care when they move outside of our area. It may be feasible to accommodate such patients who relocate outside our catchment area, subject to the following rules.
Out-of-Area (OOA) Registration
OOA Registration offers patients access to all the services typically associated with registration, with two exceptions: home visits and urgent treatment (if you are unable to visit the practice). If an OOA Registered patient falls ill and requires home-based care, regardless of the time of day or night, they can call 111 (urgent) or 999 (emergency) to receive the necessary medical attention.
Patients that we will not consider for OOA registration
Certain patients are not suitable for OOA registration. This includes patients likely to require specialised care from teams located within the area of their residential address rather than their GP’s address which is better suited to their needs.
- Pregnant women/Antenatal services – requiring local community based services
- Families with children aged 15 years or younger – requiring local community based services
- Patients with severe mental health issues (e.g., Psychosis, Bi-Polar, Schizophrenia) who require support from community mental health specialist teams (e.g., Community Mental Health Team)
- Patients or families with Child Safeguarding needs/Children’s Social Care – requiring local community based services
- Patients with Adult Safeguarding needs/Adult Social Care – requiring local community based services
- Patients with complex community-based care packages/Adult Social Care
- Patients who are seen as vulnerable and are better suited to more local care who are requiring community based services
- Patients who do attend review appointments for chronic diseases monitoring or do not engage in national screening programmes ie bowel cancer testing, cervical screening
- Patients who have complex medical needs that the practice feel are better suited to be treated by a more local GP due to home visits and urgent care not being provided to them by the GP Surgery as part of the OOA agreement.
The reason for not accepting OOA registration to patients in these categories is that their health and social care needs are best met through registration at a GP practice in close proximity to their residence. Community based care, within a Borough, is locality based.
The practice reserves the right to request that they register elsewhere if their circumstances place them in any of these groups while being registered as OOA at our practice.
Out of area registered patients’ change in circumstances
In some cases, the individual circumstances of an out of area registered patient may change over time – e.g. out of area registration without home visits might not always be clinically appropriate or practical and the risks of needing to register with a practice closer to home should be explained to patients as the point of registration through this policy.
While there is no obligation on the practice to provide home visits etc. there is an obligation to ensure the position is kept under review and should it become apparent it is no longer clinically appropriate or practical we will discuss this with the patient to review their inclusion and inform them to register with a GP practice closer to their residence
If we agree to retain a patient’s registration, they must commit to attending any “review” appointments. Patients will be invited for a review of your medical condition (e.g., asthma, diabetes, etc.) or for preventive measures such as flu vaccines or smear tests. Failure to attend these review appointments may result in removal from the practice list and a recommendation to register with a GP practice near your residential address.
We will send patients a copy of this policy and ask that they read and acknowledge receipt.
Appealing a decision
If we feel you are not suitable to remain registered with us you are able to appeal this decision by either writing, emailing or phoning us. Our address and details are: Eastmead Surgery, 20 Eastmead Avenue, Greenford UB6 9RB, Eastmead.surgery@nhs.net, Telephone 0208 578 1244
Dr Wasan, Dr Patel, Dr Oesterling and Dr Kamboj
GP Partners Eastmead Surgery