Post Code Rationing of doctors angers residents

2.41.10pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 26th Apr 2004

Several local residents have protested to MP Vincent Cable and to the NHS, having been removed from doctors' lists without their permission or refused admission to nearby GPs lists - in each case because they have the 'wrong' post code.

Residents in the Hampton Court area have been told that they will be struck off the list at Hampton Medical Centre because they live in a KT post code rather than TW12 - even though they live in Hampton and in one case been with a practice for 35 years. Another family have a child needing regular consultation for a serious condition and they have been struck off without appeal, with 30 days notice.

Vincent Cable said: "I have written to the Primary Care Trust - the local NHS authority - protesting in the strongest terms at this arbitrary, high handed, behaviour. This is NHS bureaucracy at its worst showing a complete contempt for individuals and individual choice. It is also further evidence, if more were needed, of the arbitrariness of local post codes where the equally arrogant and inflexible Post Office will do nothing to accommodate local concerns".