I moved into the area 24 years ago. We live in Honor Oak Road and had no difficulties registering with Forest Hill Group Practice at 1 Forest Hill Road. The family is 2 adults and 2 children. The Practice may be in Southwark, but we were accepted without any fuss.
I have to travel to the Lister Primary Care Centre in Peckham just to see my doc. A 25 min bus ride on the 197, then a five minute walk down Peckham Road.
When we first moved to SE23 we rented close to the Forest Hill Group Practice but we could not get on the list or any other local GPs. After some help from NHS Direct and a letter from them we were eventually (5 month after we had moved to the area!) allocated to the Brockley Road Surgery which at the time was at least a 20/25 min walk from where we lived. We eventually bought a house which happened to be much closer to the Brockley Road Surgery and now only have a 5min walk. Since this surgery has been taken over by the same people as the Hilly Fields Medical Center, the GPs are also much better (before we saw a lot of locums who did not stay long and the old GP who had been running that surgery retired). Now there is stability and some great GPs and I actually quite like that surgery. The nurse is nice too.
rbmartin
Does your Doctor know you live so far away. Normally they move people of their books in your case as to do home visit would be a nightmare.
Home visits? Do they still do these? Whenever we've enquired about these we're told to contact SELDOC.
Takes me around 20 mins to walk to mine at Vale Medical Centre. I did wonder if there was a surgery a bit nearer to me.
I am still with the surgery (Waldon HC by New X station) I signed up with 20 odd years ago when living in Deptford. I briefly considered moving GP's when I moved to FH in 1991 but wasn't inspired by any of the available options.
My GP said he was happy to keep me on his books despite the distance as he sees very little of me and my family and hadn't ever been called out. Saying that, I rang him for advice when my son was poorly as a baby and GP turned up unannounced on his way home 'as I didn't usually ring for no reason so he thought he'd check as he was passing'.
I used to use the infamous surgery by Sydenham station in my younger years, it always seems to have looked like that! My boyfriend at the time caught chickenpox and our GP called in to check on him (as we were on his route home) for several days without being asked.
Looks like I've been lucky.
It always seems like a good idea to stay with a GP you like when you move, especially if you don't go very often. But you never know what the future will hold. My mother stayed with our family GP when she moved house. He said it was fine but he couldn't do house calls. A few years later she was suddenly and terminally ill and the GP just couldn't provide the services she needed because she was outside his catchment area. So we had to find her a new GP in her new area to take her on, which just added to the stress of the situation, for her and her family.
Very true and very sad & upsetting for you and your family
As someone says good to stay with GP you know when you move if you do not go often.
No one can forsee when illness will strike.
When I moved from Dacres to Devonshire in 85 kept telling the Bell Green Health Centre I lived in Dacres ( where my parents still lived .) When my was mother ill in about 04 and the GP did a home visit by mistake Mum let the cat out of the bag.
I was very politely asked to move despite the fact I could still walk to Bell Green in about 23 mins , Vale only about 5 mins nearer.
I think probably best to sign up in the right catchment area. You never know your medical requirements in future
It would appear that each Surgery maintains details of its own catchment area and that these are closely guarded secrets, which makes life difficult for anyone moving into the area.
When they were looking for a use for Louise House, I thought it would be an ideal place for a GP's surgery and mapped all the local surgeries to show how poorly served Forest Hill was. You can see the map
here. However,
NHS Choices have improved their website in the intervening years and you can now sinply enter your postcode to find the nearest practices which are supposedly accepting new patients.
Unfortunately you still have to ring round and ask whether you fall into their catchment area.
If you have problems getting registered, then (depending on where you live) contact either
Lewisham,
Southwark or even
Lambeth PALS as Ghis and BarCar have already mentioned.
Ukelely Lady
I have heard that this is a problem for this south-west quadrant of Forest Hill (south of London Road and west of the railway line).
Apparently for a while Taymount Rise and the roads off it and at the top weren't within any doctors surgery catchment areas(!). But then, as I understand it, Wells Park Practice catchment was extended to cover it.
We are at the top of Taymount Rise and have been registered with Wells Park Practice for about 4 years. Apart from their infuriating phone booking system they seem to be very good.