NHS Registration for Spouse and Children - confused

Hi - I'm new here - just arrived in the UK 3 weeks ago. How you're all doing fine.

Anyway - we're getting confused about registering for NHS. We went to your local GP and they've been giving us different information. We've tried to register and the first time they said we need to be in employment for 6-months before we can be registered then we said that's not what we heard so they said they will try to see - so we left the papers (application form, passport photocopy etc) with them.

Then just now they called and initially said only my wife (who's on work permit) can be registered but not our daughter and me (I'm a dependent on my wife's work permit and will only look for a job next year once we have settled our daughter in daycare). Then later they changed their mind - said they will register my wife and daughter but not me coz I'm unemployed. But I've read that I can be registered also.

Is there any new rulings that came out recently coz my GP seems to be confused all the time. Do different GPs have different rulings ? Like one GP can state which patients they will take in and another GP can have different rules ?

Thanks.

pards wrote:Anyway - we're getting confused about registering for NHS. We went to your local GP and they've been giving us different information. We've tried to register and the first time they said we need to be in employment for 6-months before we can be registered

As far as I know, the rule is that you have to intend to stay in the UK for more than 6 months. There are different ways to prove this, and obviously a contract is one way, living here for at least 6 months is another. As a spouse they should not give you any trouble if you register at the same GP.

However, since this did not work, I would recommend that you register with a different GP. The handling is indeed rather inconsistent, and you may just get registered without any trouble.

Do different GPs have different rulings ? Like one GP can state which patients they will take in and another GP can have different rules ?

No. GPs can be full, in which case they don't take new patients, or they have to take everyone who applies.

What you have been told is total rubbish. The whole family is entitled to be registered under the NHS.

Suggest you return to the doctor's surgery and if they still persist in their erroneous view, ask for the contact details of the PCT .... Primary Care Trust .... name, address and telephone number ... making it clear that you will be complaining to the PCT about this matter. And then do complain.

Clearly the PCT need to address this issue ... lack of staff training. But you are not the first ones to be given wrong information about this matter.

Until the Labour Government abolished them I was Chair of a Statutory Body, the local Community Health Council. CHCs were set up to be the "patients' friend". Accordingly, whilst I don't work in the NHS, I do have more knowledge about this matter than the average man in the street. I am very happy if you print this and take it along to the doctor's surgery.

Hope it gets sorted out in the near future.

Thanks for the info - I went to the GP to try and personally to talk with the person in charge of registrations - only got as far as the receptionist who had to go up and down the stairs (reception is downstairs - doctor and admin office is in the second floor) several times to confirm things between me and the person in charge. Finally explained to them that I don't have a work permit and that I'm a dependent on my wife's work permit. So in the end - they agreed to register me - which they hopefully did.

As for consistency - I have to agree with that - my wife's colleague who arrived just ahead of us by a couple of weeks also encountered the same problem. In their case - their son got sick (very high fever) shortly after arriving so they wanted to get a GP to check on him as a private patient - one GP didn't want to see coz they haven't registered yet, they went to another - same thing - they then went to a hospital A&E where they still didn't get checked until my wife's colleague made some "noise" - their son finally got checked after 5 hours of being shuffled around. He was like - "I'm willing to pay - can somebody just please check on him.".

Anyway - thanks for the info - just need a little bit of getting used to how things are run here. Reminds me of what happened with her colleague regarding the BT Broadband installation - got passed to about 6 persons (with 2 of them just cutting off the conversation). Anyway - thanks again.

Congratulations on getting registered, but after all that is your right.

You and the other members of the family should receive a card, sometimes in the next few weeks, giving your NHS number, and getting that card will confirm that you are indeed registered.