Safe Surgery

A Safe Surgery can be any GP practice which commits to taking steps to tackle the barriers faced by many migrants in accessing healthcare. At a minimum, this means declaring your practice a ‘Safe Surgery’ for everyone and ensuring that lack of ID or proof of address, immigration status or language are not barriers to patient registration.

Registering as a Safe Surgery means practices can receive a range of support, including resources to support practice staff, simple guides to NHS entitlement and translated patient-facing posters; training for clinical and non-clinical staff on migrants’ entitlement to NHS care common barriers and good practice. Being a safe surgery also has additional benefits, such as support to fulfil contract obligations and support successful CQC inspections by helping practices deliver an Effective, Responsive and Caring service.

The Safe Surgeries initiative is endorsed by the Royal College of GPs.

For more information about Safe Surgery, please see the NHS website.