To ask how common it is to be removed off a gp lists

[thedaywewillremeber]

My friend has recently been removed off a gp’s list. She says it’s been because she had minor disagreement with a doctor at the practice. Aibu to think these more to as I’ve disagreed with doctors and this has never happened. Or could it really be that simple.

I think it depends on the practise. We have two in our village. One kicks you off their books at the drop of a hat and the other seem to let people away with screaming abuse at staff.

My DD was kicked off the list for failing to attend an appointment. Even though the letters that they got from the hospital showed very clearly that she missed the appointment because she ended up in hospital (I explained when I called the next day to organise a replacement prescription for her damaged epi-pen).

That's very rare, in my personal experience.

I've worked in two different GP surgeries in Admin roles, both in London with approx 8-9k patients. The GPs here work under a LOT of pressure & take a LOT of stick from patients. I have never seen a patient removed from the list for a 'minor disagreement' with a GP, even for being verbally abusive (which is depressingly common). The only times (2x that I can think of) were for physical aggression, and were both patients with no recorded MH problems that may have mitigated their behaviour.

We did remove a chunk of patients on a yearly basis because they had been essentially AWOL/uncontactable for a period of 2 years prior.

Sounds to me like a) your friend is lying, or b) they disagreed with a bit of an arsehole GP. If they feel that they were treated unfairly, they should complain to the local Primary Care Trust.

It’s very hard to remove patients. We have to justify it and prove we’ve made efforts to resolve the issue. We actually manage to remove a fraction of those that we’d like to .
The majority are removed for being abusive and threatening to reception staff.

I was removed from the same surgery's list twice. Living in a very over-subscribed area and couldn't get a GP. Wrote to Primary Care Trust who allocated me to a GP surgery. Two years later they declared I was "out of catchment area" and bumped me off. I wrote to the Primary Care Trust and they allocated me to the same surgery. Two years later they bumped me off again and Primary Care Trust allocated me to a different GP. Locally they were known to bump people off their list all the time - their excess capacity being the reason the PCT clearly felt they had space for newcomers.

A question for the GP staff here - if you get kicked off the list but aren't in the catchment area for any other surgeries what do you do? I'm not planning to get kicked out but we can only join one surgery and it occurred to me that that may cause an issue for the local abusive drunks.

I had a slanging match with my Diabetes doctor and he didn't sack me!

I thought they were tolerant of most things, except, perhaps, abusing receptionists and frequently missing appointments.

I’ve been removed for not using the service for over 5 years. I was re-registered soon after following a request from me to re-register. So getting removed does not always means there are sinister reasons

I imagine it was either a really serious incident (like being violent, using racist abuse, something like that) or numerous fairly serious incidents (continuing to threaten or verbally abuse staff after several warnings).

It is rare and not easy to get deregistered.

I was deregistered after I ignored a letter telling me that I would be if I didn't phone them to confirm my address and book a smear test.

Due to personal circumstances at the time I was an anxious mess and didn't want the test, so I didn't respond. I expect I was removed as unreachable at the address, but looking back it seems wrong that they bundled the two things together, like they were trying to get rid of women who didn't want smear tests so their uptake percentage looked better.

Yes, it would have been more sensible for me to phone and say I didn't want the test or to be deregistered, but anxiety isn't logical and I was scared they'd try to pressure me into it.

Why does it matter to you?

Well this was a while ago obviously but my mum’s GP deregistered her because she wanted to have home births (completely healthy, no-complications pregnancies) 🤷‍♀️

@LadyFidgetAndHerHandbag
If you find yourself in that situation you can contact Primary Support Care England and you will be allocated to a practice. The practice is forced to accept you - unless you are on the Tacking Violence / SAS scheme where your have your own very special place to visit!

Our surgery removed 1500 from their list a few years ago, they were sent out to other villages etc.. One very elderly lady was distraught, she had been with the surgery since she was a small child and could remember the doctor making home visits on his horse and cart!

It is usually an act of last resort; unless the practice owners are tightening their rules, perhaps due to increasing waiting list, newly-built town extensions often fail to include basic infrastructure such as GP. If your friend has not been repearedly abusive/aggressive, she should appeal.
I admit I've not rttt, but my experience is of the practice I attend tolerating a great deal of disruptive behaviour. Though it was returned to local NHS Trust administration cos it was useless under the first owners.
If your friend has a Dr there she gets on with perhaps she can challenge?