Friday 19 August 2022 11:55 AM GPs are resisting NHS request to update their patient lists trends now
GPs have resisted calls to update their patient lists after suggestions practices may be including dead people and getting more cash.
The health service has restarted its investigations into so-called 'ghost patients' after they were paused to allow GPs to cope with the increased workload of Covid.
It comes after MailOnline last month revealed more than 5.2million patients who do not exist are registered at GP surgeries in England.
Surgeries are paid roughly £150 per year for every individual on their books, regardless of whether they see them.
NHS England has now asked outsourcing firm Capita to restart its checks to ensure practices are not being given money for patients who have died or are registered elsewhere.
But the British Medical Association (BMA) — which represents around 160,000 doctors — has hit back at the requests to update the lists.
The union said it is 'a bureaucratic burden' that 'will detract from practices' and doctors ability to provide care. Its request to delay checks has been rejected.
The notional cost of 'ghost patients' — many of whom have either died, moved abroad or are duplicates — is in the region of £750million a year.
Patients' rights campaigners suggested that practices could be deliberately letting their patient lists become overinflated to get extra cash.
Crucial NHS statistics — used to determine how much money surgeries should be allocated from Government — show there are 61.7million patients across the country. But results from the 2021 census, which were released last month, states the nation's population actually stands in the region of 56.5million
MailOnline's analysis of ghost patients shows patient lists are nearly a quarter larger than the estimated populations of some parts of the country. The figures are based on Office for National Statistics (ONS) population estimates of clinical commission groups (CCG) from 2020 to the end of 2021 and NHS Digital patient list data as of June 2022
Primary Care Support England (PCSE), an administrative arm of Capita, emailed every GP in England earlier this month announcing it was restarting its checks on lists.
The email said: 'NHS England has asked PCSE to recommence data quality checks on GP practice patient lists, this includes a reconciliation of your practice’s patient list.
'This work was paused intermittently during the Covid-19 pandemic but has started again on Monday, August 1, 2022 and this will be a phased approach over the next 12 months.'
It said data quality checks 'are carried out to reduce the number of patients incorrectly registered with GP practices'.
The email adds: 'Accurate patient lists help to deliver safe patient care by ensuring patients are correctly registered for services.'
It added accurate lists will ensure 'that practices are paid correctly for the number of patients they have'.
Practices will be approached individually by PCSE and have to give them a detailed patient list within 30 days.
The service will then check these for 'discrepancies' over 14 days, before contacting the practices again, who will then have to fix them.
PCSE will look specifically for discrepancies with patients aged over 100, those that migrated to England a year ago and students.
But the BMA has asked NHS England to delay the checks 'until practices had their full complement of clinical and administrative workforce'.
In a newsletter to GPs, the union said: 'We have raised our concern with NHSE/I that this is a bureaucratic
