Guidance

Breast screening: women not registered with a GP practice

Updated 1 August 2025

Applies to England

To have breast screening, a woman must have an NHS number and ideally be registered with an NHS GP practice.

Unregistered women requesting breast screening

If an eligible woman contacts the breast screening service to request a breast screening appointment and her details are not on Breast Screening Select (BS Select), advise her to register with a local GP practice. The public information Breast screening: registering with a GP practice is available online from GOV.UK. It is also available in plain A4 PDF format to print out for people who cannot access digital information.

Entitlement of an individual to request registration with a GP

A person should be able to register with a GP practice of their choice. They can only be refused on reasonable grounds, for example if they live outside of the GP practice catchment area, or the practice list is full.

A GP practice cannot refuse to register someone because they:

• have no form of identification
• do not have a fixed address

If someone is unable to provide an address for correspondence, the GP practice can register them under the practice address. All screening correspondence will then go to the GP practice, for the individual to collect.

If someone is having difficulties registering with a GP practice, advise them to contact NHS England on 0300 311 22 33.

More information on GP registration is available online at NHS.UK. There is also specific information regarding registering:

• homeless people
• people from Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities
• asylum seekers and refugees

Receiving registration details

Advise the woman that once she has registered with a GP practice, she should wait approximately 48 hours to allow for all necessary information to be processed. She can then contact the breast screening service to request an appointment. If you know that someone has registered with a GP but their details have not appeared on BS Select after 48 hours, contact their GP practice.

When registration details are on BS Select

Check with the woman that all her details on BS Select are correct. A new registration must be created on the National Breast Screening System (NBSS). Use either:

• the registered address on BS Select
• the GP practice address with a contact number for the woman
• an alternative postal address if one is provided by the woman

If the woman has requested to use an alternative address, this must be noted within her client record notepad in NBSS. Record how the request was received, the date of the request and the person requesting the change.

Check that the woman is within the eligible age range for breast screening. If she is:

• create a self referral non batch referral (NBR) episode
• make an appointment at an agreed time and location
• issue a timed invitation letter and enclose a copy of the breast screening invitation leaflet

There is no requirement to wait until the woman’s GP practice is due for screening. If the woman is not attached to one of your responsible GP practices, follow the out of area screening guidance.

If a woman has no fixed address, there needs to be agreement with her about the postal address to be used for her invitation and subsequent results letter. The address could be that of a relative, friend or their GP practice (with prior agreement). It is not appropriate for someone to receive their invitation or result by email or text message.

Women without an NHS number

Breast screening services cannot send an appointment to a woman without an NHS number.

Women with an NHS number who are not registered with an NHS GP

Prior to any appointment being offered to a woman who is not registered with her GP, a consultant radiologist, consultant practitioner or breast clinician should firstly check the details of the woman and confirm that she meets the programme criteria for routine screening within the NHSBSP.  

Once this process of checking eligibility has been confirmed, the service must then check whether the woman is registered on BS Select. If she is not registered on BS Select, request that she is added using the ‘New Registration for Breast Screening’ form via the National IT Customer Support Portal. Select the option “Eligible for routine screening but not registered with a GP practice”. The service will also need to add the name of the consultant radiologist/consultant practitioner or breast clinician that has verified the participants eligibility for breast screening.

Once the woman has been added to BS Select, create a new registration on NBSS.

Use the:

• registered address on BS Select

• ZZZ GP practice as allocated by BS Select
• create a self referral non batch referral (NBR) episode
• make an appointment at an agreed time and location
• issue a timed invitation letter and enclose a copy of the breast screening invitation leaflet

Should the Service Now team not be able to find a match for the woman on the Personal Demographics Service (PDS – “the Spine”), or where the NHS number is found but the provided date of birth does not match, the request will sit under the ‘Action needed’ section of the National IT Customer Support Portal. In this instance the service will need to contact the woman and reconfirm her details. If it is not possible to verify the woman’s identity on PDS, no screening appointment should be issued.