Registered patients using walk in services in other practices
Registered patients requesting appointments at other practices outside of extended access arrangements;
Within Derbyshire, we have had some recent examples of patients who are registered at a Derbyshire practice and who are also turning up to access walk in services at other local practices within their area. Can we remind practices that this does not fall under temporary resident status if the patient has not had a change to their home address and they are already accessing essential services within their local registered practice.
The patient should be referred back to their registered practice or if the patient is within the practice catchment, they may choose to fully register at the new practice, they cannot register as a temporary patient.
The relevant section of the NHS 2004 (GMS Contracts) Regulations is copied below
Temporary residents
16.—(1) The contractor may, if its list of patients is open, accept a person as a temporary resident
provided it is satisfied that the person is—
(a) Temporarily resident away from his normal place of residence and is not being provided with essential services (or their equivalent) under any other arrangement in the locality where he is temporarily residing; or
(b) Moving from place to place and not for the time being resident in any place.
(2) For the purposes of sub-paragraph(1),a person shall be regarded as temporarily resident in a place if, when he arrives in that place, he intends to stay there for more than 24 hours but not more than three months.
(3) A contractor which wishes to terminate its responsibility for a person accepted as a temporary resident before the end of —
(a) Three months; or
(b) Such shorter period for which it agreed to accept him as a patient, shall notify him either orally or in writing and its responsibility for that patient shall cease 7 days after the date on which the notification was given.
(4) At the end of three months, or on such earlier date as its responsibility for the temporary resident has come to an end, the contractor shall notify the Primary Care Trust in writing of any person whom it accepted as a temporary resident.
Refusal of applications for inclusion in the list of patients or for acceptance as a temporary resident.