Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether families including a (a) baby and (b) young child in temporary accommodation are able to remain registered at their GP surgery if they still live (i) in the area and (ii) outside the area but within reasonable travelling distance.

Patients have the legal right to choose a general practice (GP) that best suits their needs. To ensure a sufficient distribution of GPs for all patients in England, GPs are required to agree to an area within which they will accept patients onto their list. However, GPs can register patients from outside their catchment areas, without a duty to provide home visits for such patients. A practice may grant continued permanent registration to a patient who has moved outside of its practice area, provided that patient has not registered with another practice as a permanent patient.

Practices have a contractual duty to provide emergency treatment and immediately necessary treatment free of charge for up to 14 days to anyone within their practice area who isn’t registered with another provider of essential services.