Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to ensure patients are aware that they are able to register with GP practices considered out-of-area.

Where a patient who is outside a practice’s boundary area applies to register, the practice may register the patient, either as any other registered National Health Service patient or as an out of area registered patient to whom the practice has no obligation to provide home visits.

Additionally, all practices must produce a practice leaflet, which should include information on how patients can register and the contractor's practice area, including the outer boundary area and whether it accepts out of area registration requests. This is also recommended for practice websites.