NHS England has commissioned Doctors of the World UK (DOTW UK) to produce an adult and a child patient health questionnaire for refugees and people seeking sanctuary in the UK.

The questionnaires, co-produced with DOTW National Health Advisors, are designed to be completed by newly registered refugees and people seeking asylum and cover questions related to personal demographics, acute and chronic health needs including those associated with their pre-migration and migration experiences, medication and vaccination requirements, family history and lifestyle.

We suggest that GP practices share the questionnaire with patients at the time of registration, however DOTW will also be sharing this resource with organisations supporting migrant populations in order to increase its accessibility. The purpose of the questionnaires is to enable GP practices to have early access to information that will inform patient management and prioritisation of their needs. It is not designed to replace in-person new patient health checks but as a tool to increase effectiveness and efficiency of consultations for improved health outcomes and patient experience.

The questionnaires have been translated into 28 languages: Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese Mandarin, Dari, Farsi, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Kurdish (Sorani), Lithuanian, Nepali, Nepali Pahari,  Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Shona, Slovakian, Somali, Spanish, Sylheti, Tagalog, Tamil, Tigrinya, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu.

The questionnaire and NHS England’s accompanying guidance on how it should be used is available here (Ukrainian and Russian here)

Of note, it can be used to support completion of the National Vulnerable Migrant Enhanced Assessment template which is available on SystmOne.

To support the initial health assessment of newly registered migrants, two SNOMED codes have been released to record that the assessment for newly arrived migrants has been undertake using the New Patient Questionnaire. These are:

• 1874651000000105 | Initial health assessment using New Patient Questionnaire for newly arrived migrants in the United Kingdom (procedure)

• 1874641000000107 | Initial health assessment using New Patient Questionnaire for newly arrived migrants in the United Kingdom declined (situation)

Using the New Patient Questionnaire (or a locally-developed version), Health Care Practitioners should record on clinical systems, using the above SNOMED codes, whether the Initial Health Assessment has taken place or been declined.

Please see below resources.

Questionnaire for adults

Questionnaire for children (0-15)