About Front Door and how we work

Front Door explains the administrative side of the NHS in England: how to get registered, how referrals move, what you are charged and what you are entitled to ask for. We do not write about symptoms, conditions or treatments.

Who writes this

Ruth Ellery, patient advice caseworker. Eleven years supporting people through NHS registration problems, complaints and help with health costs, first in a local advice service and then in patient advocacy. Not a clinician — which is precisely why this site covers process, money and rights rather than medicine.

How the guides are made

• Every charge, deadline and entitlement is checked against a primary source: legislation, Department of Health and Social Care announcements, NHS England guidance or the NHS Business Services Authority.
• Sources are listed at the foot of each guide. If a figure cannot be verified, it is not published.
• Charges are stated as the published England figures with the financial year attached, because they change each April and differ across the four nations.
• Every guide is reviewed each April when charges are reset, and immediately whenever an exemption rule changes. The review date appears at the top of the page.
• We do not publish symptom guidance, dosages, treatment recommendations or comparisons of medicines.

Where we stop

If a question is clinical, the answer is your GP practice, NHS 111, or 999 in an emergency. If a question is about your individual case, your local Healthwatch and the free NHS complaints advocacy service can act for you in a way that a website cannot.

Corrections

Tell us about an error through the contact form. We correct the guide and note at the foot of it what changed and when.

Funding

This site may be funded in part by Google advertising (for example Google Ads or Google AdSense). Ads are labelled as advertising. We do not accept payment for editorial mentions of any provider, insurer or pharmacy, and we do not sell sponsored articles. How advertising cookies work, and how to control them, is explained in the privacy notice and cookie policy.