Guidance on ensuring the successful GP registration of Crown Servants and their dependants returning from overseas postings – support for returners from Ukraine
- This guidance is in support of the rapid response to GP registration of members of the Crown servants, including members of the Armed Forces and their dependants returning to England from Ukraine and the surrounding countries
- There is a newly introduced regulatory requirement (October 2021) that enables crown servants and members of the Armed Forces (a “service person”) who are posted overseas, and their relevant family members who have accompanied them on their posting, to be able to easily re-register with their former GP practice on return (or a new GP practice if returning to a different area in the UK). This includes as a permanent or temporary patient and making their application in advance of (or upon) their return to the UK.
- Where an application is made to re-register with a former GP practice, the patient must be accepted,even if their patient list is closed.
- Where an application is made to register with a new GP practice, the patient must be accepted if the practice patient list is open.
- The application may be made up to, but not more than, one month before their planned date of return to the UK, and if the application is for permanent registration it must be made no later than three months after the patient arrived in the UK. The contractor is not required to provide primary medical services to that individual before their actual return to the UK (although they are able to pre-book appointments etc once their registration is accepted (if before their return to the UK).
- Primary Care Support England (PCSE) has received GP registration of some diplomats currently resident in Moscow with Moscow addresses
- The National Health Application and Infrastructure Services (NHAIS) system is designed to reject registration requests when key demographic information is missing.
- Mandatory data fields required for a successful GP registration includes
Due to the current situation in Ukraine, if the applicant is unable to provide a UK address, we advise they should provide a UK address for friends, family or (if agreed with the practice) the GP practice address as a placeholder. Patients must update records as soon as they are in the UK)
- Insufficient information can also be a reason for rejection and common reasons include:
- No trace of address on Royal Mail postcode finder, Google or NHAIS -this is often due to spelling errors.
- incorrect ‘registration type’ selected
- Birthplace
- Date of entry to the UK (for crown servants returning to the UK from Ukraine/Moscow, they may not know the precise date of entry)
- PCSE does not suspend practice registrations or limit the number of registrations that can be submitted
- Any GP practice experiencing delays in the registration of Crown Servants or UK citizens returning from Ukraine should contact the PCSE CSC team directly on 03330142884 where the enquiry will be raised as a high priority review.