Rejecting a registration

Learn about the reasons you can refuse to register a patient.

The service does not tell patients automatically if their registration has not been successful. If you decide to reject a patient registration, you should tell them in writing within 14 days. You must include the reasons for refusal. Follow your surgery's relevant process.

Reasons to refuse to register a patient

You can refuse to register a patient if they:

live outside of the surgery catchment area
are already registered with a Special Allocation Scheme (SAS) provider
sent an application, but you have agreed with your commissioner to close your patient list

Refusing a registration on the basis of other reasonable grounds

If you choose to refuse a registration on the basis of 'other reasonable grounds', these reasons must not relate to the patient's:

race
gender
social class
age
religion
sexual orientation
appearance
disability
medical condition

If you use auto registration

You still need to review patient records transferred into your clinical systems, even if a record has been automatically created for the patient because they meet the criteria.

However, some patients are blocked from auto registration.

These patients will have:

previously been registered at your practice
an immediate or 8-day removal code on their patient record

If the patient meets these criteria, they will not be auto registered at your practice. You will get a patient registration email, which you can review using your existing manual processes.

Find out more about auto registration.

Last edited: 15 January 2026 3:20 pm