Doctors and house moves etc

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Lizzie

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi all

First of all, does anyone know if I need to change hospital and/or GP if I move to a different area? I remember a while back there was discussion of being able to choose a GP near work or something instead of near your house but am unsure of whether this is now law or not.

Secondly, if I have to change, does anyone here go to Guy's? That is the nearest hospital to my new house, I think. Is the diabetic clinic there good? If anyone is living in Southwark, which GPs are good? I will be in Elephant and Castle.
 
How close will you be to your current docotor? It makes sense to have a doctor as close to home as possible.

I appreciate if you are happy with the GP you have you may not want to change, but if you are that ill you can't get out or find it difficult to travel it might be a problem.

Hope everything works out well for you, good luck.
 
Two issues here, with potentially 2 different answers.
You'll have to ask your existing GP if they're willing to keep you registered at your new home. As GPs are officially responsible for your out of hours care, they may have geographical boundaries - admittedly a bit daft as out of hours care is actually provided by co-operatives or companies that usually cover relatively large patches (smaller geographically in big cities like London than in rural areas).
Hospitals / clinics - this depends on (a) which your local PCT is willing to fund you to attend and (b) hospital / clinic's willingness to keep you on.
Might also be worth thinking about transport links between home / work / GP surgery (and links to pharmacy/ies for repeat prescriptions) / hospital - nearest isn't always easiest. Bus routes and tube lines are considerations, particularly in London - I've a feeling that Northern Line from Elephant & Castle takes you near Barts Hospital, but not being a current London resident and never having lived east of Euston, nor south of river, I can't help much.
 
St Thomas Hospital is quite close to London Bridge Station which is served by national rail, a number of buses (not sure which ones) and bank branch of The Northern Line, but am not sure what areas it covers.

I work not far from Euston, but am not sure which hospitals are in the area.

Know what you mean about nearest hospital not always being easy to get to. My 'local hospital' is two buses for me or 10 minute walk and a bus.
 
Thanks for your replies. My current GP is on the bus route from work, but it will be slightly more awkward to get to when I have moved. There is a surgery closer to my new house but due to the vagaries of borough boundaries, it is still in Lambeth (which is the borough I am leaving) rather than Southwark which I am moving to. I will have to get in touch and see if they will accept me as a new patient. It is a good point about accessibility but I had hoped to stay at my current Gp and clinic since I have been going there for years now and am familiar with it. I just wanted to know if there was an official line on this but it seems from the replies that it is down to the individual surgery.
 
Lizzie - sorry, there are lots of times when the advice has to be "ask your local provider"

Caroline - Which hospitals are near to Euston?!? Well, UCH, for one - I chose to train there in late 1980s, partly due to proximity to Euston & Kings Cross for getting to Midlands, North West & North East England, plus Scotland. Before British Library was built. Only personal contact I had with UCH was when I needed physio for a knee injury, due to carrying heavy loads with rigid ankle boots, over rough ground in Svalbard, probably more than I should have carried at that age, but still a great experience, only possible because of being granted 2 weeks unpaid leave and shifting a couple of placements by a few days each.
 
Thanks for info. I know on the odd occaison when the first aider has said send this person to hospital it has always been tot he nearest. I think there might be one of those medicentre places at Euston, but I'm not sure and I've been told they are expensive.
 
You should be able to be seen at whichever hospital you want, but depending on who funds the DSN's you might not be able to see the DSN's linked to the hospital. So might be worth checking that out.
 
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