A GP surgery has agreed to register a newborn baby after a father claimed he was told they would not take the little girl onto their books. 

The father attempted to register his daughter with the East Lynne Medical Centre in mid-November. 

But he claims he was told by the surgery, in Wellesley Road, Clacton, they would not take her despite advertising for new NHS patients. 

The surgery told the Gazette the issue had arisen as the mother was not registers at the practice, however it has since agreed to register the baby. 

The dad said: “Even though I sent an e-mail to the practice manager, they were still refusing to take her, all because the mum is not registered there."

As the family has experienced issues with the surgery where the mother is registered, they decided to have their daughter registered at East Lynne Medical Centre. 

“The excuse my doctors used is when the baby has immunizations, it’s more convenient if the mother is there,” the father said. 

The family has been seeking help from Healthwatch, an independent charity set up to help improve the health and care system. 

A spokesman of Healthcare Essex told the Gazette: “The surgery needs to accept new patients unless they live outside of their catchment area. 

“It's possible someone registered with them, although they live outside of the catchment area and when it comes to registering a new person, they might say no because of that. 

“It seems like a rather very strange decision if they’re saying that they are accepting new patients and they are saying that they won’t take that newborn. 

“There needs to be a reason why because they are duty-bound to take someone if they are accepting new patients.” 

According to the Healthwatch expert, the only reason for denying taking on a newborn could arise when there are legal issues around the guardianship of the child. 

Speaking to the Gazette, the surgery's practice manager said: “I did have a conversation with the father and what we do like to do is have the mother present in the surgery and to be registered here because with her post-natal checks, it just helps with having the baby and mum registered the same surgery. 

“We've been looking into this because we do take all queries and issues seriously, and we will be registering the baby here.”