General Practitioners: Registration

(asked on 17th December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of people not registered with a GP; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect of that figure on the roll-out of covid-19 vaccinations.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 27th January 2021

No estimate has been made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of the English population not registered with a GP surgery. The data NHS Digital holds on GP practice registrations is aggregate counts at practice level, meaning that individual patients are not identified, and therefore numbers not currently registered cannot be ascertained. The number of patients registered at a GP practice in England as of January 2021 was 60,606,345 (see https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/patients-registered-at-a-gp-practice/january-2021).

In planning for the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I) have sought to ensure that vaccinations are accessible to those who are not registered with a GP.

NHSE/I commissioned the general practice COVID-19 vaccination service in line with agreed national terms and conditions, as an enhanced service (ES). The ES enables practices, coming together as Primary Care Network (PCN) groupings, to vaccinate unregistered patients provided they are eligible for a vaccination. Individuals who are not registered with a GP Practice will therefore be able to access the vaccine in line with the priority groups outlined by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisations (JCVI).

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