As part of the NHS England National Registration Form, patients are asked whether they have an emergency contact and, if so, to provide that person’s details.
An emergency contact is someone the GP practice may contact in the event of an emergency when the patient cannot be reached.
What question do patients get asked about emergency contacts?
The NHS England National Registration Form includes the following question:
“Do you have an emergency contact?”
Patients can select Yes or No.
Below is an image showing how the emergency contact question appears on the NHS England National Registration Form 👇.
An emergency contact is not mandatory and will not prevent a registration from being completed.
If a patient answers “Yes”
They are shown a section asking for the details of their emergency contact, including:
Full name
Relationship to the patient
Contact telephone number
The form allows international numbers to be entered but states that a country code must be included.
Optional checkbox: “This is my next of kin (NOK)”
Below is an image showing how the emergency contact details section appears on the NHS England National Registration Form 👇.
By continuing, the patient confirms that the GP surgery can contact this person in an emergency.
Where does the emergency contact information get recorded?
Emergency contact details provided during registration are entered under the Family/Relationships node in the patient’s record within the clinical system by Healthtech-1.