To lie to my GP

[tacosplease]

Two days ago I discovered that I’m five weeks pregnant and need to call my GP to get the ball rolling with midwife appointments and scans.

However, my GP’s surgery is in an area of London where I no longer live. When I moved to my new address I didn’t let them know as I really like that particular surgery and didn’t want to switch to my new local one.

This has worked out fine for the last five years or so as the doctor has never needed to post me anything.

But I’m wondering what happens with the 12-week scan - do they send you a copy of the scan photo in the post? Or is it emailed or given to you then and there?

Obviously if it is posted I will need to ‘fess up and switch to the new surgery. I’d just really rather stick with my current one if possible, as it’s very good, whereas my local surgery gets poor reviews online.

It's home visits, different midwife teams etc.
Do it now so you can get used to the new surgery systems.

London GPS tend to be pretty strict on catchments. You’re going to have to ‘fess up to register the baby so best to do it sooner rather than later.

This kind of discrepancy is exactly how people fall through the cracks in NHS admin. If you don’t want to risk delays or disruption to your antenatal care then your GP needs your correct address.

RuthW “we will find
out and you will be removed”

Gosh, you sound nice.

My surgery allows people to live anywhere and other people on this thread have said the same.

"To thine own self be true"

Also to thine doctor, lawyer and accountant.

Even minor lies to any of these will come back to bite you on the bum.

Update your address and take any consequences.

Scan appointments, baby vaccination info all sent to your house. Midwife & HV appts at home. You might even be under a different hospital. Change it.

Here you can self refer to the midwife without a gp appt so might be worth checking on your local maternity hospital website

After 17 years with the same GP we had to change as he died (1 GP practice) registered with a huge practice (6 GPs), thought I’d hate it, but actually I love it. OP change to your local one, you might be surprised.

Midwife's often do home visits. Different areas work in different ways but it may be that midwife's from your old surgery won't cover where you now live. Or it may be that they do. Hospital appointments are all posted. You really need to tell them that you have moved. They may still accept you, they may not, but you need to sort this out asap. Easier to do it now and get all of your antenatal care with one team rather than risking having to transfer halfway through when they find out.

iF you're a long way now from your old surgery, they're not very likely to keep you on the books unless you have a very good reason.
When I still lived in the UK, I moved to the next town along but managed to stay at my old surgery by begging and by promising never to ask for a GP home visit (I worked at the hospital anyway) so they grudgingly allowed me to stay. i was one street over the boundary anyway, so it wasn't that far out but the new town's surgery was dreadful so I didn't want to switch.

You have to come clean, you really do - but you can ask your surgery and see what they say. But if they say you have to go then I'm sorry, you do. :(

The midwives and health visitors are based out of the GPs area so you are going to need someone local for your maternity care. Also, as pp says, you'll need letters to book scans etc.
Time to move surgery OP. Sorry.

I was told in no uncertain terms that when you move out the area you have to change doctors
I was given 4 weeks this summer to get it sorted
It’s to do with funding apparently- the doctors here (s/e England) don’t usually agree to keep you if your out of catchment
Hospitals do tend to send out letters still so they’ll want the correct address

Bit of a side point, but how do you know your GP surgery haven't sent you any post in the past 5 years? You would presumably be none the wiser if sent to your old address?

But yes you need to fess up now. A lot of correspondence is likely to be posted to you (scan appointments, antenatal test results etc) and your GP surgery will have to give your details to midwives / health visitors for follow on care.

I've been with the same GP surgery all my life (59 years) and I've not lived in their catchment for 30 of those years. This has been fine as the arrangement always was if I was ill enough for a home visit then I was ill enough to go to A&E. To be fair I was registered at my parents address so I always got any letters etc but they're both gone now. Earlier this year I was quite seriously ill and it caused some issues as they wanted to send out HVs and I was way out of area. I think you'll find with midwife/HV appointments/home visits etc you're going to have to change but I'd speak to them first. I've still not changed (although they do now have my correct address) but will if necessary now as I can see the issues it could cause.

Remember that online reviews are often skewed. Patients who are just ok or much happier could be less likely to go online to comment. I was looking for a new Nhs dentist and almost all the reviews on my local ones were bad. (Also full lists so I’ve had to go private)

My surgery allows people to live anywhere and other people on this thread have said the same.

The surgery I work at doesn’t. If you are outside our catchment area you will be sent a letter giving you 28 days notice to register at a surgery in your area.

Scan appointments, baby vaccination info all sent to your house. Midwife & HV appts at home. You might even be under a different hospital. Change it

^ you wouldn’t want to miss vital apps because you haven’t updated your address.

Echo the others - you will be referred to a community midwife team (even if you have consultant care, you will be assigned one). and this is based on the address as your GP holds it. Ditto health visitor.

They'll notice you are out of area at some point, and so better to sort it out now when everything is calm and predictable. Not in the immediate post-natal period (not least as services are so stretched and extra travelling time for the MW could be a straw that breaks the camel's back of her workload)

In our surgery the health visitors and midwives are assigned on surgery so if you were out of catchment they would not come out to you , they would ask you to re register . We would also do no home visits if out of catchment . People have home visits for all kinds of reasons , not all life threatening .
If you lienowyouriskgetyi ground out in the future and this could happen at a time more crucial than now. My advice , re-register .

At my booking spot at the hospital I was asked to bring proof of address

All other very good points above aside, it doesn't matter how good the surgery is, fast forward 9 months and you have a sick baby, you need to see the Dcotor NOW, not traipse across London in the traffic to get to some preferred GP.

Same goes for yourself in labour. I wanted to stay under my original hospital's care when I had DC2 (I was 6 months pg when we moved & we didn't move far) but then worked out that the new hospital was 20 mins away (on a good journey) and the old one was 60 minutes away (on a good journey). 40 minutes is a LONG time if you're in labour and screeching at your DH if he ever dares to drive over a pothole.

Have a good time unraveling your web of deceit.
Just do the right thing for you and your child's welfare.
Honesty has got to be a good start.
Good luck and congratulations. Hope it all goes well.

So you've lived at your new address for five years without telling them? How have you had your smear test(s) in that time? I get appointment and results by post for that.

I did literally the same as you, loved my GP. Though it was only 2 years. However once I got pregnant he kindly told me I would need to register to my local one. I would ask but be prepared to be told to change. Congrats!

I agree that online reviews are usually negative and the positive ones go unreported.

My GP surgery is absolutely fantastic but I have never written a review to say that in the 10 years I have been there.

You need to contact your current surgery and find out if you are able to stay with them, if not then you will need to change.

Remember that your baby will need to visit the GP for immunisations etc or if they are poorly. Do you really want your surgery to be that far away when you have to get a sick child there? So even if you are allowed to remain registered at that surgery would you want to be?

I am not sure if you are allowed to "refuse' to be removed from GP's list but I'd try to make sure you get a new doctor before they take you off the old GP's list - my DH made the mistake of letting his old surgery tell him they couldn't see him any more - but then he couldn't find anyone who would take him.

It depends how far away you have moved.
As other have said above, it's up to the surgery whether or not they agree to keep you on and add your child. The practical issues about midwives, hospital appointments, health visitors, vaccinations and so on need any surgery to have your current address.

If you are in London surely you don't just have one local surgery? Look around at several. Consider travel routes to work and possible nursery as well and research them properly. Look at CQC reports and the recently released GP Patient Survey from NHS England.