Right to Care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Right to care: improving access to primary care for inclusion health groups
IRAS ID
302032
Contact name
Pushpsen Joshi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London Hospital
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2021/10/45, UCL Data Protection
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 3 days
Research summary
Everyone living in the UK is entitled to access free primary care. However, GP practices commonly refuse to register people if they don't have proof of address, ID or because of their immigration status. This problem affects many of the most marginalised groups in our society, including asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, gypsies, travellers, Roma, and people experiencing homelessness or with substance use disorders. Collectively, these groups are termed inclusion health populations. Research shows that these groups have worse health outcomes than the general population and often do not have access to information on how to access the NHS or their rights. Barriers to access primary care can result in higher usage of secondary care services and people presenting with more advanced health conditions.
Outreach teams like UCLH’s Find&Treat (F&T) and Doctors of the World (DoTW) provide healthcare for inclusion health groups in the community and work to effectively integrate them into mainstream NHS services. DOTW helps service users register with a GP in two ways: first, by calling the GP to help register individual patients and second, through an initiative that helps GP practices to register inclusion health patients. These programmes were developed to support mostly migrants, are resource intensive and have never been systematically evaluated.
The aim of this project is to improve national access to primary care through GP registration for inclusion health groups. The programme will develop and test two new DOTW programmes: first, to develop a tool to help inform service users on their rights to primary care and empower them with knowledge to help them register with a GP practice; second, to develop a training programme to train GP practice staff on the entitlements, specific health needs and how to register inclusion health patients for GP practices around the UK.REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/SW/0022
Date of REC Opinion
31 Mar 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion