If you are ill while away from home or if you are not registered with a doctor but need to see one you can be registered as a temporary patient for up to three months at a GP local to where you are currently staying. 

This will allow you to be on the local surgery list and still remain a patient of your permanent GP. However after three months, if you still require on-going care you will have permanently register with the surgery. 

To register as a temporary patient simply contact the local practice you wish to use. Practices do not have to accept you as a temporary patient although they do have an obligation to offer emergency treatment.

You cannot register as a temporary patient at a practice in the town or area where you are already registered.

These fact sheets have been written to explain the role of UK health services, the National Health Service (NHS), to newly-arrived individuals seeking asylum. They cover issues such as the role of GPs, their function as gatekeepers to the health services, how to register and how to access emergency services.

Special care has been taken to ensure that information is given in clear language, and the content and style has been tested with user groups.

Open the leaflets in one of the following languages: