Who is a carer?
A carer is a person of any age (including children) who provides unpaid support to a partner, relative, friend or neighbour who couldn’t get by without their help. This could be due to old age, frailty, disability, a serious health condition, mental ill health or substance misuse. Parents of children who are disabled or who have a serious health condition are also considered to be carers.
It is estimated that 10% of patients are carers.
Improving carer identification
As a practice, we want to increase the number of people on our carers’ register so that we can look after you better. We do this by:
- Asking patients with long-term conditions to name their carers
- Running awareness-raising campaigns to get carers to tell us about their caring responsibilities
We recognise the difficulties involved in arranging appointment times when you have Caring responsibilities. If you are included on our Carers’ Register, we will try to accommodate your need for an appointment in the surgery at a time to suit you wherever possible and subject to availability. Please mention that you are a Carer to the telephonist/receptionist when booking your appointment.