Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with relevant groups on allowing individuals dissatisfied with the care they receive from a GP to move to another practice in the same local area and overriding any block on intra-area transfers.

The Department has not had a specific discussion on this topic, however, patients have the legal right to choose a general practitioner (GP) practice that best suits their needs and can change their GP surgery should they be dissatisfied with their care. When moving practices, a patient has to formally register with the new practice by submitting a registration form to them, available at the practice or from GOV.UK. This is provided they are operating an open list and taking new patients.

If a practice does refuse registration, they must explain to the patient the reason for doing so. A GP practice cannot refuse registering a patient based on the race, gender, social class, age, religion, sexual orientation, appearance, disability, or medical conditions of the patient.

If this process has not been followed, patients should raise this with their practice who will provide details of the complaints process. If a patient is not comfortable raising a complaint directly or do not feel they have had a satisfactory response, they can raise their concern with their integrated care systems, with NHS England by emailing england.contactus@nhs.net or with Healthwatch England.