News > New parents! Register your newborn baby at your GP practice

The Tower Hamlets Health Visiting team is urging new parents to register newborn babies with a GP as soon as possible, so that they don’t miss out on vital health services.

It’s important that you register your baby as a new family member with y​our GP to access vital health services such as the GP infant 6-8-week check and the immunisation programme. 

The process to register your newborn baby with your GP has been simplified during the COVID-19 Pandemic. You can now  register your baby with your GP without registering the Baby's birth with the Registrar. This is usually a formal requirement and a process to be completed by six weeks of age for the baby. This process usually includes issuing a Birth certificate to prove the Birth Registration has been undertaken, normally a requirement to subsequently register your infant with your GP. However, during the Coronavirus pandemic, Birth registrations with the Registrar have been temporarily suspended.

You do not currently need a birth certificate to register your baby with the GP Practice; all you need to do is:

  • Call your GP practice and tell the receptionist that you wish to register your child with the GP, or
  • Contact your practice via online and follow the process. 

Any information required to register the baby with your GP will be in your baby’s red book, so have it handy when making the call or online application for details required. Why not register for a digital eRedbook online for easy access to your baby’s details. CLICK HERE to visit the eRedbook registration page. 

Jenny Gilmour, GP Care Group’s Clinical Director for 0-19 Integrated Services, said: “Our Health Visitors use every opportunity to encourage parents of newborn’s to register their baby with their GP to access the routine services, including discussing this and other important items during the New Birth Visit, which is delivered between 10 and 14 days after the birth. But we want to put the word out there that they don’t need to wait for that and can simply call their GP practice to register the baby with the GP.”