§ 21. Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that NHS patients within the East Lancashire health authority area who are registered with doctors in an adjacent health area are not transferred to another doctor against their wishes. [28001]
§ Mr. MaloneNone. General practitioners have the right, subject to certain safeguards, to remove patients from their lists without giving a reason. Similarly, patients have the right to withdraw from a doctor's list without giving reasons. In order to ensure that no patient is unable to register with a doctor, GPs are required to agree with their health authority the geographical area within which they are willing to accept patients. It is sometimes necessary, for example due to a sudden influx of patients onto their list, for GPs to re-define their practice area. Any patient who is registered with a GP but lives outside the GP's geographical area, and who is then removed from that GP's list, can expect the local health authority to find them another GP within two working days. The national health service now achieves this standard fully.