Practicalities of changing GP for uni?

[Cathpot]

Firstly apologies for what may be a very obvious question- DD is off to uni in Scotland and we are in England , so slightly different NHS set up. She has a repeat prescription from the GP here. I am presuming she needs to register with new GP at uni but I don’t know what to advise her about the prescription here as presumably there will be a time lag in the handover. I would get her to ask our GP here but it’s a lengthy quest to get into see anyone in person and they don’t do questions over the phone. Anyone with knowledge of how the signing up with new GP goes? Do they just have to find one or is this stuff generally covered in the intro week?

Yes but not electronically as I understand? I think it's due to start in 2025.
A paper prescription would not be sent in the post.
Sorry if I'm misunderstanding the point.

I had to. I got tonsilitis 6 times on my first year alone and strep throat once. Horrendous.

During Freshers I wasn't even able to walk to the bathroom I was so I'll. My poor brand new house mate had to push me there on my desk chair (although tbf 10 years later we're getting married so maybe a good thing?)

And it depends on the uni. Mine had a campus GP for uni and then you just googled your nearest for second year on.

Not going to lie - have no clue what they send or how.

But if I’m prescribed something by the GP in person or by phone, I tell them which pharmacy I want to use and go pick it up later that day. I don’t get a paper prescription unless I ask for that.

Things on automatic repeat I just go to the pharmacy every 3 months and things that can’t be on automatic I do a repeat prescription form online and it gets sent straight to the pharmacy and I collect it from there.

Not sure how it’s different practically from my end tbh, I assume whatever changes they’re doing are to simplify it on theirs.

Dd is at Edi uni but has never changed gp. Not least because the uni health centre is oversubscribed and she could get a telephone appointment here if needs be or schedule to see them for vacations. Main benefit would be free prescriptions but not sure if that applies if your permanent address is not in Scotland.

New students need to be mindful that even if they didn't need a GP much before university things can change really quick and does change for many. You don't want to be scrabbling about trying to register when you're feeling shit and concerned about your health. Also usually for accessing sexual health services.

There was a post about this a few years ago and a post from a university city GP said please register with the uni GP; they rely on students registering for funding too. Every year they lose a chunk of their patients who have completed their uni course and they gain a similar number with Freshers.

Yes this is how it's always worked in England as well but what happened was that local pharmacies would collect paper prescriptions from the local practices on mass. This is still the case in Scotland. It's not in England where they go electronically. But, even if they didn't, a practice won't be sending it to a pharmacy hundreds of miles away! Technically in England a prescription can be sent from London to Newcastle in seconds. That's not the case if the student is in Scotland.

It applies if you’re a student there. My DC gets them. They also have the Young Scot travel card that gives them free bus fare.

This is true too, my DC decided to get a copper coil fitted after struggling with side effects of hormonal contraception and was put on priority track with the Sexual Health Clinic because she was already registered with a Scottish GP.

My dd is on long term anti depressants and at uni. We have kept quiet and just re order via Lloyds direct. She has had one telephone appointment to check but otherwise all fine .

Dd won't cope with a new doctor so I won't change unless I have to and she is home 75% of the year anyways

@Coriolise Young Scot card only lasts until they turn 22. dd's is about to expire, but she has done some long trips on it, Does anyone know if free eye tests apply to students? Dd got a reminder from our local Specsavers but would transfer to one there if free!

Yes to the funding issues. I am sure in the case of St Andrews, the 2 GP practices definitely need all the students to register for funding reasons. The town clears out in the summer apart from tourists. It seems easier to get seen face to face by the GP over the summer presumably because a lot of students have left.

Yes NHS sight tests are free for everyone in Scotland.

Your old home GP should be willing to see you as a temporary patient if necessary in the holidays though.

My strong, strong recommendation is for them to register at uni, if possible with a campus GP or a practice with a good relationship with the uni.

• If they feel like crap and need to see a doctor, filling in a registration form will be the last thing they want to do
• If they need any mitigation evidence or similar, they're much more likely to be able to get this easily from a local GP who knows the setup
• For certain services, including accessing some mental health services locally, being registered in the area is important and not being registered will be a barrier to being able to access treatment and support
• In the (very rare, but possible) circumstance where the uni feels they need to advise a GP of a concern for a student, it is again much easier for them to do this if they're registered at the campus GP.

They can easily do a temporary registration at home over the vacation if they need to be seen then, but being registered where they're primarily living is important, and that's uni.

Hi we have a similar issue, I'm not sure if we have shared care but camhs review and GP prescribes for adhd. However in light of setting off for uni I've asked camhs for an appointment and apparently they've moved him onto adult services who have not made contact since January, I'm thinking it may be safer to keep him registered with local GP until this is all sorted.

Yes, this, and I agree with @Persipan too. I see a lot of students who need medical evidence urgently in the course of their studies. Without this evidence we can't support them properly by making appropriate academic concessions.

Please encourage your children to register with a GP practice at university because something urgent can come up that affects their assessments. In this case, the doctor may expect to see them in person and it's important not to delay that process.

Of course, if they live very near the university there's no need to change - as long as they could get to the surgery easily when ill or injured, that's all that matters.

GPs can send prescriptions electronically to any pharmacy in the country (at least in England, not sure about Scotland), so they could redirect it.

Also, assuming your home GP does telephone consultations, your DC can still access their service for anything that doesn't need a facevto face consultation.

I'm not saying the OP is like this but I had a couple of friends whose parents encouraged them not to register at university and it was so their parents can still control their children's medical appointments etc. they felt they couldn't say no to their parents but felt they should have been given full control.

I think that some parents need to explore why they think it's better to stay registered at home and I think in some cases it's for their own benefit and not their child- a way of not quite letting go

@DavidBattenburgh I agree. Until dd has spoken to her new (adult) psychiatrist, and we've clarified things with both her old GP, and the university medical centre, I won't be encouraging her to move. It's just not worth suddenly finding that she has to pay privately for her ADHD meds - it would be about £80-100 per month, I think! 😳

Yes, being registered where they are primarily resident is one criteria.

Which would be the home address if their uni is like ours - 2 x 12 week semesters (with a reading week but let's not count that) = 24 weeks at uni, 28 elsewhere (often home)

Year 2 perhaps they work over the summer at uni but then year 3 finishes by May and it's home or elsewhere

If my child had mental health issues I would encourage a change to a uni GP as the only thing they get any practise at, apart from contraceptives, is mental health advice.

Serious physical illness? I'd rather they didn't go to a totally useless Uni GP Practice with an endless series of barely qualified locums. Of of course your own GP Practice is like that too then I suppose it matters less.

Hi, I also have a DS with ADHD and we were advised by CAMHS to keep him at his home GP - not register with a university one.

He gets meds prescribed in 2 month blocks so can take enough to uni with him to last till reading week and then can collect more supplies at that point.

In our case though DS has chosen to go to a uni an hour max from home so it's manageable to do this - I'm not sure how it would work if he'd chosen to go somewhere miles away from where we live.

But CAMHS were very definite, in our case, that it would be in DS's interests not to register with uni GP.

@FlyingPandas that's very interesting. I wonder if the same will count for dd who has a private psychiatrist rather than CAMHS.

I'll do some investigating.

Unless there are really complex circumstances, it's better for students to be registered locally or at campus health centres.