Moved house: old or new GP?

[PipPipPip]

Hi there,

I recently moved house, about 30 mins drive away.

I'm still registered with my old GP, but I'm wondering whether to move to a closer GP.

If I stay with the old GP, will it limit my choice of hospitals? Would it interfere with midwife care?

Pippa

Hi, I stayed with my old GP, and when I fell pregnant he refused to refer me to a community midwife as I had been to the EPU with suspect ectopic of a different hospital and he said it would make it very difficult.
I had all my midwife appointments and consultant appointments at the hospital nearest to me until 27 weeks, when I registered with my local GP, who as we are in a village, still fell under the cathment area of my original GP, however they were great, and I saw the community midwife for the gp's catchment area even though it wasn't the hospital I was attending for consultant and all ran smoothly.
I am pregnant again 30weeks and midwife only care, still same midwife and am registered with the same hospital as before, have come across no hurdles so far, that suggest my previous gp was right.
Depends on gp ime.

I think you will have to change your GP as once you give the old one your new address they are likely to tell you that you're out of their catchment. If you're still within catchment then which GP you have will not make any difference to your choice of hospital, you can choose to go to whichever hospital you want to. I might affect your choice of midwife care as, again, midwives have their own area which they will cover.

I guess your first step is to check with your GP surgery whether they will keep you as a patient at your new address.

IMO (I am a GP), you should register with a new GP nearer to were you live.
Your care is likely to be under a different midwifery team, the HV team will be different, referrals will be difficult from one catchment area to another. Administrative and practical nightmare!

IMO (I am also a mother ), you should register with a new GP nearer to were you live.
You are likely to need/want see your GP/nurse/HV team much much much more often than you might have done before you had children (I know I did). I chose my GP on how easily reachable the practice was.
Also, God beware, should you ever have a scarily ill child and need a house visit, you do not want to be told 'sorry, we do not visit that far away, you will have to call a local GP and be seen as a Temporary Resident'.

30min away is too far for comfort. Change GP now, get some recommendations from new neighbours, and get to know them before your baby arrives.

Good luck

I have to say, my new gp is only a 5 minute drive and is my local gp's but as we fall between 2 hospitals, the one I attend in nearer to my house than the one that is nearer to my gp.

It's complicated but it is the way it is, if I want to go to a gp that falls in the same catchment area as my nearest hospital it would be 20 minutes.

By complicated I mean explaining the way my village is set out not the system.

I have met no obstacles. I can't say the system is easy or not for the practice and the hospital but for me as the patient have had no problems.

Hi - this has recently happened to me. I was told my old GP to move to a new one (we moved when I was about 25 wks pg - am 34 now) in case I needed a house visit (as PacificDogwood also said) even though I had only moved about 5 miles from surgery.

I have done what I was told but have consequently managed to lose my entire maternity record which hasn't gone down too well with new midwife - my medical records do not seem to have arrived from old GP even though its only 5 miles away (I know that's irrelevant btw, it just seems a bit ridiculous that it takes so long to transfer NHS records between surgeries) so new midwife knows v little about me - only what i tell her infact!! Luckily, the hospital I have to go to for delivery is the same so I am not that concerned as i think they will have info on me there!

I think you ought to ask the surgery - mine made it clear my new address wasn't served by them and so I would be effectively lying each time I went which I am not very good at!! Tbh both surgeries are v nice so its worked out ok for me.

Good luck!

I was made to move when I was pregnant with DD because they said if I needed a doctor in the night etc then I was not in the catchment area. Bizarely the old GP surgery doesn't do night visits but my new one does....

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your advice. I think I'll move GPs now (early in pregnancy) rather than wait.