About the Supporting GP registration for people experiencing homelessness programme

The training programme has been developed to support GP practice staff and complement the new online GP registration service, to reduce the risk of worsening health inequalities for the homeless population. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 introduced statutory duties on the NHS to “have regard to the need to reduce inequalities” in access to and outcomes achieved by services. There are further duties imposed on NHS England under the Equality Act 2010 and NHS Act 2006 on equality and health inequalities.

People experiencing homelessness are entitled to be registered with a GP, whatever their immigration status. Practices may only decline to register a patient (whether as a temporary resident or permanent patient) if they have reasonable grounds to do so. These grounds must not be related to their race, gender, social class, age, religion, sexual orientation, appearance, disability or medical condition. There is no contractual requirement to request evidence of identity, immigration status or proof of address and while some practices may request this, they should not refuse registration on the grounds that a patient is unable to produce such evidence. People experiencing homelessness have significant health needs and often suffer some of the worst outcomes. Reducing barriers to accessing healthcare will help improve engagement. People experiencing homelessness may register with a temporary address, which may be a friend’s address or a day centre. The practice address may also be used.

All practices are expected to have processes in place to demonstrate (e.g. practice policy, records of refusals) that it has not refused any registration unreasonably, including refusal on the grounds any patient was unable to provide proof of identity or address or any evidence of immigration status.

NHS England is committed to ensuring homeless patients receive the same level of care as those with permanent addresses.

Primary and secondary audiences

• Administrators
• Medical Secretary
• Practice Managers/Assistant Practice Managers/Operations Manager
• Receptionists
• Health Care Assistant
• Other non clinical staff

Acknowledgements

• Dr Jasmin Sakhina Tzortzakakis Malik, GP, Clinical Lead Inclusion Health, North Central London ICB and Clinical Lead London Homeless Health, Transformation Partners in Health and Care
• Mark Smith, NHS England. Head of Primary Care Commissioning
• Iyabo Akanmu-Ogunremi, NHS England. Programme Manager GP Commissioning and Implementation
• Dr Sohail Munshi, Manchester Local Care Organisation. Chief Medical Officer
• Abdul Hameid, NHS England National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme. Deputy Director Strategic Partnerships
• Dr Dianne Addei, NHS England National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme. Senor Public Health Advisor
• Marina Davidson, Doctors of the World. Advocacy Manager (Primary Care Lead
• Kay Keane, Ancoats Urban Village Medical Practice. Practice Manager, IGPM, Director Institute General Practice Management
• Lisa Harold-Rothwell, GP, Londonwide LMCs. Deputy CEO
• Samantha Dorney-Smith, Nursing Fellow, Pathway. Queens Nurse, Professional Nurse Advocate, Secretary to the London Network of Nurses and Midwives Homelessness Group, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Salford

How to access

To access this elfh programme, you will require a Learning Hub account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below. Note that if you hold a full elfh account, you can sign into the Learning Hub using your existing login credentials.

Register

To view the Supporting GP registration for people experiencing homelessness programme, select the View button below. If you already have a Learning Hub account, you will also be able to login and access the resources within the programme .

View

NHS healthcare staff in England – ESR

The Supporting GP registration for people experiencing homelessness programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this e-learning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.

Not an NHS organisation?

If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access to the Learning Hub, you may be able to access the service if you have an existing OpenAthens account. Please go to Learning Hub and sign in with your existing credentials.

If you do not have an existing OpenAthens account, please contact elfh directly to check whether you may be eligible for access.

Registering large numbers of users

If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Supporting GP registration for people experiencing homelessness programme, please contact elfh directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own LMS

For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the Learning Hub