Registering with a GP in England takes about 15 minutes per person online, and the NHS is plain about what you need: "You do not need ID, proof of address or proof of immigration status." The registration is the easy part.
Your medical history is harder: it stays wherever it was written unless you carry it. NHS inform in Scotland warns that on a first UK registration, records "from outwith the United Kingdom won't be traced." The folder in your suitcase is the record.
The questions that matter are which papers a UK doctor needs, who translates them, and what a translation must get right so that 2,5 mg never becomes 25 mg. Below: registration in all four nations, NHS translation, what to translate first, prescriptions, vaccinations and medication lists.
Do you need medical records or ID to register with a GP?
No. NHS guidance says "Everyone in England can register with a GP surgery, including as a temporary patient". The government's migrant health guide adds that "a practice cannot refuse a patient because they do not have proof of address or immigration status", and that GP and nurse consultations are free of charge to all.
A practice can still say no for three reasons: it is not accepting new patients, you live outside its area, or it has removed you from its list before. If it refuses, it "must write to you within 14 days to explain why."
Register online through the NHS website, on paper or at the practice. Bring nothing medical: your history comes in at the first appointment.
Will your new GP get your medical records from abroad?
No. Earlier NHS records can be found and transferred between UK practices, but no equivalent system reaches a clinic in Lagos, Lviv or Lahore. Ask your doctors for copies before you leave: discharge summaries, the last specialist letter, a printed medication plan, recent laboratory reports and vaccination cards.
In Germany, for example, any patient with statutory health insurance who uses at least three prescribed medicines at once is entitled to a Medikationsplan (section 31a of the Social Code, Book V), a standardised plan listing each medicine's active ingredient, brand name, strength, form, dose and reason for use. That one page is often the most useful document a new GP can receive.
Will the NHS translate your foreign medical records?
Possibly, so ask before you pay. NHS England's guidance for commissioners on interpreting and translation in primary care says that where a patient registering with a practice has health documents in another language, these should be translated into English "as soon as possible where there is an identified clinical need." It says translation should be provided "free at the point of delivery", by competent, trained translators "and not by practice staff", and that tools such as Google Translate should be avoided. The Welsh Government's 2025 standard operating procedure for primary and emergency care applies the same clinical-need test, though it says automated tools "should be used with caution" rather than avoided.
The phrase that matters is "clinical need". The practice decides what it needs and when: perhaps the cardiology letter and the medication list now, and nothing else. That leaves gaps a translation of your own fills:
- Timing: your medicines understood at the first appointment, not after a request has gone through the system.
- Referrals and private care: a consultant or private clinic may want the underlying reports.
- Other readers: schools, employers, insurers and the Home Office set their own rules; see medical certificates for visas, employers and the DVLA.
- A copy you keep for every appointment and every move.
NHS guidance asks for a competent translation, not a certified one. Certification adds a signed, dated statement of accuracy with the translator's details, which other readers often require; see what a certified translation is in the UK.
Which foreign medical records are worth translating first?
The ones that change what a doctor does next. Start with current treatment and work backwards only as far as it stays relevant.
| Document | Why the GP needs it | When to translate |
|---|---|---|
| Current medication list or plan | To keep prescribing without a gap | First, in full |
| Latest letter from each specialist | Diagnosis, current plan, follow-up intervals | First |
| Recent discharge summaries | What happened, what changed, what to monitor | First |
| Allergies and adverse drug reactions | Safety before any new prescription | First |
| Vaccination records | Avoids repeated or missed doses | Early, especially for children |
| Recent results for monitored conditions | Baselines such as kidney function, HbA1c or thyroid levels | Early, with units and reference ranges |
| Imaging, histology and operation reports | Reports matter for referrals; images need no translation | When a referral calls for them |
| Antenatal records | Pregnancy care continues from where it stopped | Promptly, if pregnant |
| Resolved episodes and routine check-ups | Rarely change today's treatment | Usually leave |
Can a UK pharmacy use a prescription from abroad?
Only in narrow cases. GOV.UK guidance for pharmacists says a prescription issued in an EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland can be dispensed if the prescriber belongs to a recognised profession and the prescription shows their name, qualifications, contact details and the country of issue. It is dispensed as a private prescription, not on the NHS. Controlled drugs in Schedules 1 to 3 may not be dispensed against one, and prescriptions from countries outside that list should not be dispensed at all.
For most people arriving from outside Europe, a foreign prescription is evidence of what you take, not something a pharmacist can fill. Your GP has to prescribe, and a translated medication list lets them do it quickly. Travelling with medicines? See prescriptions and medication letters for travel.
What should a translated medication list show?
Every line as written, with enough for a UK prescriber to match it:
- The medicine as named, brand and active ingredient where the original gives both. Brand names vary by country; the active ingredient, usually its International Nonproprietary Name (in the WHO's words "a unique name" and "public property"), is what a UK prescriber looks up.
- Strength and form: tablets, modified-release capsules, pens, units per millilitre.
- Dose, timing and route, with any local shorthand spelled out.
- Numbers in English notation. Many languages write 2,5 mg for 2.5 mg; a misread separator is a tenfold error.
- Start dates, duration and the condition each medicine treats, if recorded.
- Allergies, with the reaction where recorded.
- The prescriber, clinic, date, stamp and signature.
A translator must not swap a medicine for a UK "equivalent", adjust a dose or convert units: those are clinical decisions. Anything unclear goes in a bracketed translator's note, never a guess. Our medical records translation guide covers laboratory units, abbreviations and handwritten notes in more detail.
What about vaccination records?
Bring them, because without them the NHS starts again. UKHSA guidance says: "Unless there is a documented or reliable verbal vaccine history, individuals should be assumed to be unimmunised." With a record, a course already started is resumed on the UK schedule rather than restarted.
Detail matters. UKHSA says oral polio vaccine (OPV) given abroad since April 2016 "should be discounted" because it is unlikely to protect against all three polio types, so a translation that says only "polio", without distinguishing oral from injected (IPV) vaccine, leaves the nurse guessing. Keep each vaccine's name, date, dose number and batch number exactly as written. For school entry and catch-up doses, see vaccination records for school enrolment.
How do Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland differ?
Scotland and Wales differ in detail; Northern Ireland differs in substance:
| Nation | Registering | Documents | Foreign records |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | Online, on paper or at the practice | None required | NHS England guidance: translate where there is an identified clinical need, free at the point of delivery |
| Wales | At the practice | Cardiff and Vale health board: "You do not need a fixed address or ID to register with a GP" | Welsh Government SOP (2025): the same clinical-need principle |
| Scotland | Form to the practice if staying over three months; otherwise as a temporary resident | NHS inform recommends confirming identity and address, but government guidance says "No documents are required to register with a GP" | Records from outside the UK "won't be traced" |
| Northern Ireland | Form HS200, or HSCR-1 if registering from outside the UK | Proof of lawfulness in the UK and an address in the catchment area, checked by the BSO | HSCR-1 comes in several languages; the BSO says nothing about translating evidence, so ask |
In Northern Ireland, if you do not supply the proof the BSO asks for, your registration is cancelled and you cannot re-register until you do.
Common mistakes that slow down continuing treatment
- Translating the whole folder at once, and paying for 60 pages when the GP needed five.
- Translating nothing, and relying on memory for several medicines' names and doses.
- Machine translation of a medication list, which NHS England's guidance says should be avoided: one dropped decimal changes a prescription.
- Brand name only for a medicine not sold in the UK, with no active ingredient.
- Skipping the back of the page, where stamps, dates and handwritten dose changes often sit.
Checklist: records to bring to your new GP
Questions people ask
Do I need medical records or ID to register with a GP?
No. In England the NHS says you need no ID, proof of address or proof of immigration status, and a practice cannot refuse you for lacking them. Scotland and Wales take the same approach, while Northern Ireland asks for proof of lawfulness in the UK and an address in the practice area.
Will my new GP get my medical records from abroad?
No. The NHS can transfer records between UK practices, but it does not trace records held in other countries. Bring copies of the documents that matter for your current treatment.
Will the NHS translate my foreign medical records for free?
It may. NHS England's guidance says foreign-language health documents should be translated as soon as possible where there is an identified clinical need, and that translation should be free at the point of delivery. The practice decides what is clinically needed, so ask, and arrange your own translation when you need it sooner or for another purpose.
Which records should I translate first?
Your current medication list, the latest letter from each specialist, recent discharge summaries, allergies and vaccination records. For most people that is a handful of pages, and records of resolved conditions can wait until a doctor asks for them.
Can a UK pharmacy fill my prescription from abroad?
Only if it was issued in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland by a recognised prescriber, and then only as a private prescription and never for Schedule 1 to 3 controlled drugs. Prescriptions from other countries should not be dispensed, so register with a GP and bring a translated medication list.
Does my GP need a certified translation?
NHS guidance does not require certification; it asks for competent, trained translators rather than practice staff or machine translation. Certification adds a signed statement of accuracy, useful when the same documents also go to a school, employer, insurer or the Home Office.
My child's vaccination card is in another language. What should I do?
Take it to the practice nurse with a translation. UKHSA guidance treats people without a documented or reliable history as unimmunised, so a clear record can prevent repeated doses and shows which vaccines are still due under the UK schedule.
How much does a medical records translation cost, and how long does it take?
Official Translations charges £29.95 per page, a page being up to 300 words of the source document, and every translation comes with a signed certificate of accuracy. Most single-page documents are delivered as a signed PDF by email within 24 hours, and longer documents take 1 to 3 business days.
