Updated guidance on providing healthcare to people coming from Ukraine has been issued to GPs along with a reminder that proof of ID is not needed to register with a practice.
In a primary care bulletin, NHS England said the NHS was starting to see citizens returning from Ukraine as well as refugees and that for many their first port of call with the health service would be through general practice.
NHS England said that newly-arrived individuals would need help on how to access the NHS and ‘may struggle to provide proof of ID, address or confirmation of immigration status’.
Registration requests with GP practices should be handled sensitively, it continued.
‘None of these documents are required for registration and the inability of any individual to provide them is no reason to refuse registration’, the bulletin added.
Updated guidance from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities lists the factors to consider when treating patients arriving from Ukraine including:
I would agree that official documents should not be a ‘requirement’, but I would suggest that any written document with their address on, and name and dob (maybe a separate document) would be a sensible request from any GP wishing to register them : We cannot spell Ukrainians names and dates of birth, and Ukrainians cannot spell local addresses, and to do it all verbally would be highly risky !
So each patient will need about one hour for the relevant information, examinations and blood tests to be done, and would need an interpreter, who would also have to assist with documentation.