What is a patient requested removal?
A removal is treated as patient‑requested when the patient explicitly asks the practice or PCSE to be removed from the GP practice list.
The standard notice period for this type of removal is 14 days.
A patient may request removal from their current practice via email (preferred method), or phone call to PCSE or by contacting their practice.
Email: pcse.patientremovals@nhs.net
Phone: 0333 014 2884
Removal from a GP practice can put a patient at clinical risk as they do not have a continuing care and therefore checks need to be undertaken with the GP practice to confirm the request for removal is appropriate.
Once a request is received a check will be made to ensure the patient can safely be removed from the practice. This typically entails contacting the practice if the request was received directly from the patient to ensure the patient is their own primary carer.
If the practice confirms the patient is their primary carer, then the patient is placed on a 14-day pending removal and a letter of confirmation is sent to the patient to inform them of the removal date.
Why does a practice have to confirm that the patient is their primary carer?
This is to ensure that the person is not a vulnerable patient who should not be left without a GP practice being responsible for their care.
Can a patient request their NHS number be deleted from national NHS systems?
No, the PDS (link to the PDS page) National Back Office is responsible for the management of NHS numbers and PDS records. NHS patients have no specific legal right to prevent demographic data being stored on the PDS.
Patients can request restricted access to their PDS record (Please see link below for further details)
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