Can students be registered with two GPs?

[nuthernaym]

We live in Greater London and DS is starting at UCL. He'll be in halls for the first year. The university comms are encouraging him to register with a local GP. If he did so, would he have to de-register from our home GP?

He's thinking he may not bother, because he's only an hour away and could come home if he needed to see the GP.

He would have to de-register yes.

When dd was only an hour or so away she stayed at our home GP. Almost all appointments were online anyway.

She struggled to find a practice in London when she moved there with spaces so she is now registered with an online GP service called Babylon Health.

DS moved to a GP near his Uni (although he was 3 hours away). If he had needed treatment at our GP practice when he was home in the holidays then he would have just registered as a temporary resident. I think you can do that for up to 3 months

My own DS is in his second year at UCL. 🙌
And a solidarity fist bump to you, OP. 👊😁
Mine was in Schafer house last year. Anyway, I digress!
Yes, if your DS registers with a local GP, he’ll be de registered from his ‘home’ GP. My DS didn’t bother registering near UCL because we live in West London. But I would say do register with a GP near UCL if the family GP is up North, for example.

You can only register with one, you do a temporary form if you need to see a dr elsewhere

Oh I see you’re in Greater London. I mean, so much is done over the telephone now. Do GPs even see patients in the flesh? It might be worth just staying with your family GP in Greater London, especially since it’s not that far and also, telephone consultations will remain in place. They can still call in prescriptions at Boots near UCL, for example.

If he was poorly with a chest infection or UTI it'd be rubbish for him to need to travel for an hour to see his GP. He also might want to see a doctor without telling you the reason which would be easier if it's at uni.

As a student I saw my university doctor loads (has some post viral issues) and think I saw my home GP once in the holidays (as a temp resident).

My two were 40 minutes and 2 hours from home. They didn’t bother changing, I think DS saw a local to Uni GP once as an emergency appointment.

that was pre Covid though when you could actually get an appointment

I think in the old days you could keep your home GP which makes much more sense and then just use a university health centre BUT that changed sadly.

My twins (Bristol) registered with the university GP or whatever it is. When they finished and moved back home one was told he now lived outside our family GP's borders (weird as all the rest of us here had no problem and we are 5 minutes drive away) so he went down to talk tot them and persuaded them to let him re-register which given his twin in the same house HAD managed to re-register was just as well. It was also a bit complicated to re-register even though presumably all his details were on file, he needed passports, proof of address and all sorts.

What I also found was they were so busy at university if they had something not u rgent and medical it was always in the holidays they had time to sort it out yet were not registered with our GP in holidays.

I would suggest registering at university to be honest, otherwise if your DC ever needs any appointments or treatment through secondary care they’ll have to come home. An hour might not seem far but travelling to an appt and then home is going to take at least half a day out of lectures etc.

My daughter registered with one at university and then rejoined our practice this summer as a temporary patient for some investigations. It's valid for 3 months.

@Xenia my dd has just registered at Bristol but not done anything about her one here. Will they know she's registered somewhere else now?

Yes, they will request her records from the old gp

Can’t be registered with more than one as we found out when my daughter was newly diagnosed with a lifelong condition during early Covid that needs regular blood tests to control drug levels. Was a bit of a nightmare really. Home GP told her not to register at uni as she needed continuity of care. And then failed to provide that! Luckily found an amazing GP at uni who was excellent until they moved on.

Students cannot be registered with two GPs, however, can see their GP at home

I will say it is much better for a student to be registered with a university GP service (if it is indeed this) for several reasons - one they fully understand what is happening with students as they specialise in student health, two they ensure things like vaccinations are up to date (I know of a university where students were not encouraged to register with the Uni Health Service and two students subsequently died who were not vaccinated against Meningitis - and when the inquest was running it was found a large number of students who had not registered with the Health Service did not receive the regular reminders re the vaccinations), three if you leave it until an emergency to register, they often won't provide care because they won't have full access to records and it's really awful to travel home when ill, plus if it's contagious they may not be allowed to travel home which means A and E will be the only option, and four the university health service / GP will have an over riding view of all the health concerns in the community - this includes being able to send notifications for things like Whooping Cough outbreaks, STI outbreaks etc.

Uni GPs also know the processes if anything goes wrong, ie, an interruption of studies is needed or mental health support is needed (try and think about all the things your new adults may not quite be keen to share why they are coming home for too in these scenarios!)

If he is in halls it's even more important from the contagious illness side of things...

@nuthernaym He will be taken off the list at your home surgery but he can always register again when he is back. Or if not most GP's have e-consult, patchs, or another form of online communication or via telephone. He could ask reception at your home GP to change the location of his medication to another chemist closer to him
(Just give the chemist name and address) OR get him to sign up to patient access, my GP or the NHS app so he can have more access to online gp services and he can change the chemist himself. If he needed to ever be seen he could then find somewhere local if needs be. A lot of GP's have stopped taking temporary patients like they used to so it's best to always call and find out before going to register. Temporary is usually up to 3 months x

Also, is he going to update his address to the Term-time address; if so he will likely be deregistered from home GP for being out of catchment.

A lot of GP's have stopped taking temporary patients

They legally are not allowed to do this - all GP surgeries need to provide care unless there are reasonable grounds to do so (ie history of violence etc.) if they plan to live within the catchment for less than 3 months that will be as a temporary patient.

DD had to have an unexpected emergency operation in her first year with daily replacement of dressings. The last thing she'd have needed would have been the pressure of finding a doctor to assess and refer.

@TurtleSpurtle I know it's not right! I've worked in multiple GPs that just refuse and ask them to go to the nearest walk in or a+e. Unless they fill out a full registration which most people ended up doing. One of my old bosses told me that - Very strange!