Introduction
Tower Family Healthcare is committed to providing high quality care to our patients. We understand that circumstances may arise where patients living outside of our practice’s local boundary (a practice’s boundary is largely based around the Local Authority footprint) may wish to register or continue receiving care from us. This can be particularly helpful to patients that want to use a GP surgery that is near to their place of work instead of their home, or they may prefer the services of a GP surgery that is further away.
Patients that live outside of the practice boundary area
Patients that live outside of the local area can be registered with Tower Family Healthcare and have access to services offered by the practice including routine appointments, chronic disease management, preventive services, and prescription services, if their health care needs can be safely met and they are able to attend the practice for appointments.
Home visits are generally not available for out of area patients.
We strongly recommend that patients register with a GP practice closer to their home should any of the following apply to them. If:
- They are pregnant.
- They have children under 16 years of age.
- They have a severe mental illness.
- They need home visits or are registered housebound.
- They need referral to or regular visits from local services, such as District Nurses, Social Services or Health Visitors.
If a patient falls into any of these categories, one of our clinicians will assess if their health care needs can be safely met as an out of area patient.
Continuing to meet your health care needs
Out of area patients will be reviewed periodically to ensure the arrangement continues to be in the best interest of both the patient and the practice.
The practice reserves the right to terminate an out of area registration if it is felt that the patient’s needs can no longer be safely met and the patient would be better to register with a GP practice closer to their home.