At university should you register with a local GP?
No, not usually. Stick with your GP at home – especially if it is a good organised practice.
[” .. eh? That goes against most uni advice MyHSN” Ed]
We know .. Ed. We will try to explain.
[“Well come on then .. “]
Most UK based students will already be registered at their home GP. But we do not recommend you swap to (i.e. register with) a GP that is closer to your university address – even if as this is where you will spend more of your time. You cannot be registered with 2 GPs.
So why then MyHSN? Continuity. It’s very important in healthcare. The local GP will:
- Know you
- Have access to all your notes, previous blood and other tests, and hospital notes
- Know local hospital doctors that know you
- Be responsible for preventing diseases – e.g. will call you for blood pressure checks, cervical cancers screening etc
- Be able to give you virtual appointments (telephone) and able to tell you whether you need to be seen and examined by a local doctor. If that is the case, there are other local options:
- Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC), Minor Illness Unit (MIU) or Walk-on Centre (Google what is available locally). You can see a doctor there, who is usually a GP. They also have the advantage of longer opening hours (8am-8pm, 7 days a week) and you do not need an appointment
- For a contraceptive, sexual health, or pregnancy-related advice, you can go a Sexual Health clinic.
Note 1. Pre-COVID-19 it used to be recommended to register with a GP at university. But with better IT and virtual appointments etc, this is not necessarily the case now. For example, through the NHS App you can appoint a local pharmacist to be where you get your tablets from.
Note 2. Exception. If you have a serious complex long-term disease and need to see doctors regularly, this is different. Then a local GP and hospital consultant will be better.
If I do register at university, should it be with a university GP practice (many have them) or an ordinary local GP?
Either. It will depend on local availability. But remember most university GP surgeries are big and its unlikely you will see the same GP twice.
International students
If you are an international student on a course for longer than six months, you are entitled to register with the NHS; meaning you don’t have to worry about not having access to health. In that situation, we recommend that you do register with a local or university GP.
Summary
We have answered the question ‘at university should you register with a local GP?’ MyHSN goes against standard advice, and recommends you stick with your GP at home. We hope it has helped you.
