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Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 07:04 GMT 08:04 UK

That would be most welcome and I hope they will consider it in Scotland too! For those of us who are generally healthy and in employment, it would be so much better to be able to register where we work. Having to take 2 hours off work to go and see the doctor for some minor injury which does not affect the job (or for a check-up!) when we could go to a surgery around the corner and be done in 30 minutes just does not make sense.

Sophie, Edinburgh

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 07:03 GMT 08:03 UK

Another useless gimmick by a useless government to divert attention from the fact that services are getting worse (just look at the mess regarding dental treatment).
They have spent the national insurance money aand increased the additional payments to a point where the description of 'free treatment' is nothing more than a sick joke.
And anyway who is likely to want treatment in a surgery miles from home? What a farce.
Berthold Dwinger

Berthold Dwinger

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 07:02 GMT 08:02 UK

Of course the BMA isn't keen on the idea - it means their membership will finally be held accountable.

The only change I would recommend is that first choice should be given to those who live or work within say 5 miles of the surgery.

Hector Shouse

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:59 GMT 07:59 UK

I am very happy about this. I live in Tower Hamlets, East London and can never get an appointment to see the doctor I am registered with. With the swine flu epidemic, I can't even see a nurse. All the other doctors in my area are just the same. The one time I did see the doctor I've been registered with for the last 2 years, he was absolutely hopeless and didn't even look at me, let alone check out my asthma complaint. So not much of a personal relationship there. I can't wait to move doctors!

Giselle, London

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:58 GMT 07:58 UK

A long overdue intiative.

No doubt, those living in some time warp will believe that only GP's who have known them for years, are able to read their medical notes.

No doubt that the Tories will denigrate the idea - after all that is easier than coming up with ideas for improvement

John Turner, Barry, United Kingdom

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:57 GMT 07:57 UK

I would think this goes back to years ago when your local GP would be on call throughout the night and come out if required. It was obviously easier to limit this to a certain area. However, as I understand it now, such services do not exist. Like many other things a decline in service is covered up by a so called greater choice. To my mind there is far too much choice about all sorts of things-it is really there as an indictaion that we live in a Capitalist society.

Frank, London

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:56 GMT 07:56 UK

Most viewed comment:

"The same asinine reasoning was applied to choice of schools and we all know how well that turned out.

This clueless government funnily enough hasn't got a clue

Nu LieBa, their hand in your pocket, Uzbekistan"

From the BBC website :

"In England, the 1988 Education Reform Act created a system of "open enrolment" based on parental preference (often, misleadingly, summarised as a "choice" system)"

In 1988 The Tories were in government !!!

Bo Jo

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:52 GMT 07:52 UK

This is such a thorny problem.We have a marvellous surgery here but a surgery 3 miles away for some reason is very popular and many people are getting on their books.

e, Tisbury

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:40 GMT 07:40 UK

I have moved in and out of my GP's catchment area several times over the last 10 years but have stayed with his practice for continuity of care during the whole of this time. No one knows this but me and, if there has been any inconvenience I am sure it has been mine and no one else's. It has probably saved the NHS much time and money.

Bob, Reading

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:38 GMT 07:38 UK

So how does a Doctor service patients that live 50 miles away requiring a home visit. Ridiculous idea really. Surely it makes sense for Doctors to look after a local community.

Mark Taylor, Leicester, United Kingdom

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:34 GMT 07:34 UK

Some comments are made about this which rely on home visits and the difficulty of having them if one is registered too far away from one's GP. All I will say is that the comments seem to refer to a situation that to me and people who live near me is becoming a very hazy memory, far in the past. In our experiences having a, home visit is about as likely now as discovering a whole battery farm of hens which all possess teeth.

[ddstretch]

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:34 GMT 07:34 UK

Yet another idea based on the need to be seen to be doing something. It has little relevence to the service itself, and will have little if any effect. Candy floss for the masses........

Richard Taylor, new milton

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:20 GMT 07:20 UK

For me the main question is will this lead to people having better quality health care and saving lives? Quite honestly I have to say the answer is no. As a GP working in the system offering home visits up to 5 miles radius already 50% of our appointments on the same day same day and ready access to telephone consultations the thought of having an even more scattered population to serve really makes little sense. Please remember there is no home visiting in many other countries including Canada

Simon Eyre, eastbourne

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:19 GMT 07:19 UK

I'm a GP I think this is a great idea.
Instead of seeing patients every 10 mins for 3 and a half hours am and pm together with actioning results clinic letters, requests for reports, managing staff, continuing professional development, teaching medical students, audits, targets, prescribing analyses, I can just swan around the country, 20 mins between visits, seeing perhaps two patients an hour. Each day I make well over 150 decisions about paient management, this may well cut it to pehaps 20.

roger midlands

Added: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 06:08 GMT 07:08 UK

It is already the case that If there is an emergency, you will be seen at your nearest GP practice regardless or not of whether you are registered there. This 'new' is an indirect way of undermining the one institution which is credible in most communities. As a society, we are increasingly lacking cohesiveness and ridding the country of community based practices can only contribute to an increasingly impersonal, and inefficient world.

Kate, Mansfield