Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether a visitor to the UK from another European Economic area state who is not in possession of an EHIC card can register as a temporary patient with a GP practice and receive treatment free of charge.

Alistair Burt

Possession of a European Health Insurance Card is not required to register with a practice. Anyone can seek to register as a National Health Service patient with a general practitioner (GP) practice by approaching one directly and submitting a written and signed application. A practice cannot legally refuse to register someone because they do not possess identification or documents.

Individual GP practices can have a policy where they ask prospective patients to provide identification, however they must ensure that this is applied to all patients and not done in a discriminatory manner.