Written question asked by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 22 February 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 9 March 2005. It was answered by Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour) on Wednesday, 9 March 2005 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of people in England who are not registered with a GP; and what his most recent estimate is of the average length of time a person waits to be registered with a GP. - Inc fact that the Department does not collect data on the number of people who are not registered with a general practice. (Holding answer 4 March 2005).

Answer: Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of people in England who are not registered with a GP; and what his most recent estimate is of the average length of time a person waits to be registered with a GP. [218165] Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of people in England who are not registered with a general practitioner; and what his most recent estimate is of the average length of time a person has to wait before being registered with a general practitioner. [219401] Mr. Hutton: [holding answer 4 March 2005]: The Department does not collect data on the number of people who are not registered with a general practice. It is also not possible to estimate their number with any accuracy because of inherent differences between practice registration data and the demographic data collected by the Office for National Statistics. There is no waiting time to register with a general practice beyond the actual time it takes to complete the administrative process of registration. Where a patient cannot register because his or her preferred practice is not accepting new patients there may be a delay while the primary care trust helps the patient find an alternative practice but no data are collected centrally on this.

Secondary information