I received a letter from my GP saying they will be removing me from their practice in 30 days. They say they cannot give me the care I need which will mean home visits as I am out of the area.
I do live 1/2 Mile out of their catchment area and have done for 33 years, I was accepted into the practice on that basis. I have been with the practice since birth, I am 73.
They site my ill Heath problems that needed care and support.
I looked on google and it says they cannot remove me on disability or health problems.
Two local GP surgeries are not taking patients.
Has anyone any thoughts or knowledge on this.
Written by
mobbba
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Hi, am sorry to hear this. Have you tried ringing citizen advice? From what I read on the NHS site they can remove a patient from their list on the grounds they sited.A GP surgery can refuse to register you if:
they're not accepting new patients
you live outside their area and they only accept patients inside this area
you live outside their area and you need extra care, for example home visits
you have been removed from that surgery before
I had he same problem when we moved home 9yrs ago. My GP who was great told me I could stay with the surgery providing I did not need house calls.
Sadly after a year I realised the move was too far for me to attend the surgery because I felt so ill
Thankfully I got excepted on with the local GP surgery.
But I do find it hard to understand how you can be left without any medical cover.
Thank you for your reply. Not been removed before, been with same practice 73 years.
I think I am going to take advice on this, I am shocked and it’s made me feel down, been good all the years with them and because I need a house call, I am gone.
I think alot of GP surgeries are doing this now as they`re getting ready for privatisation and are making it harder for patients to get NHS treatment. They`re constantly moving the goalposts when it comes to rules and what they will accept and don`t and the NHS doesn`t give a toss about it`s patients any more. It might end up the same way that dentists have gone where recently my dentist went completely private and some areas no longer have NHS dentists. The same is happening to Audiologists, GP`s, Physios etc etc. I`ve also heard that healthcare in the UK will end up like how it was before 1947 where it`s more concentrated in the richer areas and the poorer areas will go without or just have charities to help them. We might end up going down the american style healthcare route where you have to pay to get health insurance and treatment.
What you`ve described happening to you will be happening to many others as well and bit by bit so people don`t notice until its too late, more treatments are getting privatised like hearing tests/aids, ear syringing etc etc. Probably best to get stocked up on medications, painkillers you need and look at more natural remedies/ways of dealing with your health as certain expensive treatments will be off limits to the poor in the future. I`m sorry you`re in this position. Maybe tell as many others about your situation and see if others in the same situation have any suggestions.
Or it could also be be suggested that GPs on 40 hour weeks are doing 80 hours and are not getting the resources they need to support the communities they are there to help. Therefore they are making difficult decisions and offering what they are obliged to per the letter of their contract and still be able to look themselves int he mirror when they go home at night.
Casting GP's or the NHS as the bad guys is not fair IMO. Pulse newsletter in April 2022 reported that 1 in 4 GP's knew a colleague that had committed suicide "due to work pressures".
"The survey also found:
More than half of GPs (51%) in Britain have lost staff over the last five years due to unmanageable workloads.
48% say GPs have left due to mental health issues or ‘burnout’.
84% have felt anxiety, stress or depression in the last year.
More than half of GPs and their staff (56%) have experienced mental abuse in the course of their job in the past year."
My heart doesn`t bleed for modern GP`s considering some earn six figure salaries and work office hours in a nice office. The GP`s in the olden days worked very hard and done their day clinics then done house calls at nights and weekends. Out of hours calls have been contracted out so GP`s tend to see patients during office hours. I worked for over 20 years as a Carer in care homes, hospitals, hospices, community care working anywhere from a 12 hour shift to 4 solid days in a row including sleepovers sometimes working over 100 hours in a single week. I know what hard work is and so do many other carers and nurses I worked with. We got a pittance for what we worked as do junior doctors but senior doctors, GP`s get paid a damn sight more and some are quite frankly crap at their jobs. They want sympathy, don`t look in my direction.
I also want to add that the last care home I worked in 2021, the trainer for the care company I worked for told me and a dozen other people on a training course that the GP`s had been ringing around the care homes/care companies trying to get as many patients on Do Not Resuscitate orders as possible. The care homes told the GP`s where to go as it`s the choice of the patient and their families not that of the GP. So where some GP`s might be brilliant at their jobs, there are other GP`s, the NHS and the Government who just want elderly and disabled patients in particular to die more quickly and with a DNR so they can process the death alot more easily as it`s less paperwork and the less patients they have, the less work they have to do and the Government doesn`t have to pay out as many pensions and benefits as well.
disagree with you and othering and shifting the focus does not make your argument. I see you made made this point previously as well.
Commend you on doing 100 hours a week in a caring profession but pilots with 200+ souls under their care can only fly a 100 hours in a month. But... its okay for doctors to manage the complex care doing 80 hours a week, being paid for 40. Accidents will happen and the salary does not matter.
You speak of the olden days but the gps then were looking after less than half the patients they are now and over wider areas and with fewer doctors and importantly fewer permanent doctors. Surgeries are closing due to not finding a locum.
Have you tried contacting your local MP and/or councillor. It is ridiculous that you are being left without proper care after 73 years with the same GP practice.
Could you contact your local cab to see what they say and I would consider contacting my local MP if I were you..I'm lucky our local MP for Lowestoft in Suffolk recognises fibromyalgia and it's problems and is kind... good luck..no one should be treated like this after all those years with the practice from no fault on your part
Some GP surgeries will keep you on when you are out of area for different reasons but unfortunately if you need home visits it makes it a different situation! But you can ring the health authority and they will appoint you a surgery even if they aren’t taking in new patients! Hope you get it sorting quickly and smoothly TC xx
Good morning, I agree with Nannybee that if you can contact or if you can ask someone to do this on your behalf get in touch with your local mp. I can only go by my own experience and hope you would be as lucky but I have had numerous issues over the years and they have been the only ones to get things sorted out. I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone can be left without a gp! Even on a humanitarian level and even taking into account all the things that are happening and changing within the care sector/nhs. It is a dire state of affairs when in 2023 we seem to be going backwards whatever the circumstances. I really hope you can get this resolved 🤗🤗xx
You need to contact your local Area Health Authority (NHS). You are entitled to health care, and either your current GP must provide it, or another GP practice. If all else fails contact your MP, although I hope he/she is more helpful than mine is!! I feel so sorry for you, as I have a lovely and caring GP. Do not give up! Good luck!❤️
Hi, it could be a generic letter sent to all patients outside the catchment area. I'd contact the practice manager & explain that you've been with the practice for a long time & would prefare to stay with them & if there's any possibility of staying with them. I did this with my practice because I am just outside of their area, he spoke to the gp's & they agreed I could stay.
Hi mobba, from what I've read it is just that, now that you need home visits and possibly access to other services in the future they now can't provide them as they themselves are outside of their area.
They've been in the wrong all this time (or from whenever the rules changed) keeping you as a patient knowing full well you're outside their catchment area. They should've sorted this then, whenever you were outside their area that's when they should've sent you this letter.
To send you this now, after all these years at age 73 is quite disgraceful. They should be apologising for their glaringly obvious mismanagement of your care and doing their utmost to transfer you into a practice that can, with as little disruption to you as possible.
Definitely have a chat with citizens advice and come back to let us know how you get on.
Hi CheetieCat. Thank you for your comment. I am going to contact citizens advice.
I was doing some research yesterday. What I can’t understand is my post code is 3.1 miles from the surgery. They say I should live in two other post codes to be in the catchment area and some of those post codes are over 5 miles from the surgery.
So sorry to hear this, it must be really stressful for you. I had to change my Dads out of area doctors after he broke his hip as the nurses wouldn’t do home visits out of area. He had been with them for 53 years. I imagine that they are not asking you to move due to your disability but your likelihood of requiring home visits. That said to send you a letter saying you are being struck off after 72 years is awful 😞 this should have been dealt with in a more sensitive way, I would speak to CAB about your options, I hope you get this sorted and get the health care which you need and deserve xxx
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