UK Patients win the right to register at any GP surgery
Patients will be able to register with a GP anywhere in the country under a radical shake-up to be ordered by Health Secretary Andy Burnham today. Rules requiring people to register with a family doctor near their home are to be abolished.
In the future, patients will be able to stick with a practice they have used for years even if they move house.
Alternatively, they might choose to register with a GP close to their place of work, or a surgery which offers specialist treatment or has a particularly good reputation.
Patients may also want to switch to a doctor whose surgery has more flexible opening hours and offers weekend and evening appointments.
Mr Burnham is pressing ahead with the move to scrap existing practice boundaries despite being warned by doctors' leaders that it will be fraught with difficulty.
They fear the best GPs will be overwhelmed, although surgeries will still be able to turn away patients if their lists are full, as at present.
There are also concerns that local residents' access to the best surgeries may be jeopardised and worries about what provision will be made for home visits if a patient chooses to register with a doctor far from their home.
Full story at Daily Mail UK