If a patient moves house, they can quickly update the address on their NHS record online without having to contact their GP surgery. This shift towards updating records digitally supports our analogue to digital commitments as outlined in the 10 Year Health Plan.
A new service for patients to confirm their address
NHS launching a new digital service that patients can use to confirm or change their home address directly. This means they no longer need to ask their GP surgery to do this for them.
NHS are testing the ‘Confirm your home address’ service with patients so they can confirm or change their home address and would like to provide reassurance for patients in case they are invited to update their details.
If you don’t respond, the NHS may remove you from GP patient list which may delay any treatment or care.
How the service works
Patients who can access their records in the NHS App can log in to the service and change or confirm their address. Their address will be updated immediately in the Personal Demographics Service (PDS).
The service will check if the patient’s new address is within the catchment area of their current GP surgery. If the new address is outside the catchment area, the patient will be advised to register with a new GP surgery as soon as possible or contact their GP to discuss options.
Patients can also use the service to tell us if they’ve moved abroad. This will make it easier for GP surgeries to remove patients who no longer live in the UK.
Contacting patients
The ‘Confirm your home address’ service supports our work to improve data quality on patient records and GP surgery lists.
We regularly check patient addresses to make sure they’re correct. If we think someone may have moved house or left the UK, we ask them to confirm their home address.
To follow a digital-first approach to patient communications, we’ll soon be contacting patients via the NHS App, followed by emails and text messages. We’ll continue to send letters to patients if they need them.
