New Patient Registration

A Warm welcome from Swiss Cottage Surgery

Out of Area Patients

For our Patients who are registered and wish to remain with us but move to a location outside of our practice boundary, please understand that we are happy for you to remain registered with us but please note home visiting will have to be agreed in advance with their Doctor.  Home visiting outside of the practice boundary is not within our NHS contract and therefore a discretionary arrangement. The NHS Out of Area GP home visiting service is operated through NHS 111.  This is the same arrangement for patients who wish to register with us but already reside outside of our practice boundary.

Please be advised in some circumstances the GP will make a decision based on the patients medical needs as some services will not be available for patients to be referred to when living outside of the borough that service serves.

Your Named GP

The practice is required by the Government under the terms of the latest GP contract to allocate all patients a named accountable GP.

Your usual doctor in the contract is referred to as “your named accountable GP”. The role of the named GP is to take responsibility for the co-ordination of all appropriate services and ensure they are delivered where required (based on the named GP’s clinical judgement) to each of their patients. Having a “named GP” does not mean that this is the only doctor or clinician at the practice who will provide you with care. If you need to be seen urgently this may be with any of the doctors working that day.

Furthermore, Swiss Cottage operates a ‘Buddy System’ within our team of Doctors. This means that if your named GP is not in the practice, your results/ queries will go to another GP. This system gives greater continuity of care for you and for our doctors, as it allows you to see or speak to a doctor who has particular responsibility for you.

For convenience if you have a medical card your Accountable GP will be the named doctor you are registered with. Patients registering over the last 2-3 years will not have received a medical card as these are no longer routinely sent when registering with a new GP.

However, the practice does keep a record of your registered (accountable) GP. If you wish to be told the name of your Accountable GP, please ask the receptionists when you are next in the surgery.

Please note: there is no need to telephone the practice for this information.

Where a patient expresses a preference as to which GP they have been assigned, the practice will make reasonable efforts to accommodate this request.

It is important that you are aware that this is purely an administrative exercise and does not change the way in which we operate or affect your ability to make an appointment or speak with any of the GPs in the practice.