Auto registration pilot for Optum (formerly EMIS) practices

The GP IT pilot integrates the Register with a GP surgery service with your surgery's clinical systems. 

This will reduce the amount of time it takes to register a patient at GP surgeries.  Some Optum (formerly EMIS) practices will start a pilot to test this functionality in August 2025.

Registration applications from a small group of patients using the Register with a GP surgery service will be automatically transferred into EMIS Web. This will create a new record for the patient. Practices will not need to use their existing manual processes to register these patients.

EMIS Web will start the GP2GP patient transfer after the patient is registered and a message is sent to the Health Authority.

Patients in the pilot have the highest level of identity verification. They will: 

• be over 18 years old 
• use NHS login 
• be in the practice catchment area
• be transferring from another GP surgery
• not have a sensitive marker or Special Allocation Scheme (SAS) flag on their patient record

All other patients should be handled using existing processes for registrations.

An auto registered patient will have System User as the record creator.

You can create searches in EMIS Web to find auto registrations:

1. Select All Patients in the search bar.
2. In Feature Builder, select ‘Include Patients with Patient Details where’.
3. Choose the date for your search in the Registration Date Criteria section.

You can also use Audit View to search a patient's record. Select Click to View to see the patient's record and information.

​​​​​​The following information is coded:

• demographic information
• health and lifestyle questions that can be mapped to healthcare codes (also known as SNOMED codes)
• previous GP surgery
• Electronic prescription service (EPS) nomination, if the patient provided it

You still need to review patient information that is transferred into your clinical systems as part of the pilot. However, this will take less time for patients who meet the pilot criteria. This is because a record will already be created in your clinical systems.

You can search for a new patient's record using the patient's name and NHS number.

Information you still need to review

Some data items will still need to be reviewed and updated, including:

• emergency contact
• next of kin
• body mass index (BMI)
• Armed Forces status
• any comments a patient has made as part of a health question response (for example, pre-existing conditions)

Assigning a new GP

The pilot functionality automatically assigns a GP to the patient. You can change this if you wish to do so.

Rejecting a registration

You will not be able to reject a registration from a patient who meets the auto registration critera. You should follow your standard practice procedures for removing them. 

Registrations from patients who meet the pilot criteria will be transferred automatically to your clinical systems. They will not be passed through the automated registration provider you currently use.

All other patient registrations will come through your current automated system.

The pilot functionality will have no impact on any post-registration processes you use RPA solutions for.

We have a guidance hub for practices using the service. 

These articles will help you:

• get started using the service 

• learn how to manage the service

Contact the team if you still need help with the service, have questions about the pilot roll-out, or want to provide feedback.