Stopgate Lane Medical Centre Practice Boundary Policy
New Patient Registering
Our current historical defined boundary is satisfactory for the services we provide and as a general rule we would not ordinarily accept new patients well outside this boundary. However we will continue to review this policy in line with changing contractual requirements in regard to patient choice as advised by the Department of Health.
Patients moved short distance
Our policy on patients moving out of the boundary is that if they only move just outside the defined boundary they should expect to remain on our register. This clear clarification was has been made in response to the Department of Health directions to GP practices in 2012.
The exception to this would be if the new address inhibits the patients access to community services such as health visitors or district nurses linked to the practice.
Patients moved longer distance
If patients are more distant to the practice concerns over patient access to care becomes more of an issue as home visits become more difficult and practice linked staff such as health visitors and district nurse are less accessible as well as the obvious fact that the patient has to travel considerably further. Therefore patients should expect to re-register with a new practice near their new address to ensure that they have close and easy access to the medical services they need.
Any patient that continues to remain registered is an exception rather than the rule and that the Practice must be confident that the patient's needs are being fully met. Therefore, if issues or any doubt arises in relation to this principle then steps must be taken to ultimately have the patient re-register to a practice closer to their new address. These are other exceptions where the interests of the patient strongly favour the continued registration outside the area such as, for example, a patient with terminal care where he/she would be unnecessarily distressed by change of their GP. Therefore there has to be a discretionary element by the GP based of the clinical and practical circumstances in each case.