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The Taxpayers Alliance said the public should not be subsidizing GPs in this way.
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Figures show GPs receive millions of pounds a year for patients who don’t exist.
The number of “ghost patients” who remain on GP records (despite dying or moving) has increased by almost two-thirds in the last five years.
According to data from NHS Digital, there were 62.9 million people registered with GPs in England on November 1 last year, although Office for National Statistics figures put the population at just 57.1 million, a difference of 5.8 million.
Yesterday, the Taxpayers’ Alliance said the public should not be subsidizing GPs in this way. Its researcher Tom Ryan said: “Unless these missing patients can be found, funding for GP surgeries should be changed accordingly.”
GPs are paid for the patients on their list, earning an average of £164.64 per registered patient in 2022-23, so practices could have received £955 million for patients in that time which perhaps not exists.
The number of “ghost patients” is 61 percent higher now than five years ago, when the number was estimated at 3.6 million, despite vows to take strong action (File Image)
The number of “ghost patients” is 61 percent higher now than five years ago, when the number was estimated at 3.6 million, despite vows to crack down.
In 2019, the NHS Fraud Authority began formally investigating whether GPs were claiming for non-existent patients, but this work stopped during Covid.
Unions, including the British Medical Association, attempted to block the move, claiming it was “a bureaucratic burden” on overstretched doctors. And the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), who were denied that practices were deliberately profiting by keeping non-existent patients on their lists.
RCGP vice president Dr Victoria Tzortziou Brown said: “GP practices strive to keep their patient lists as up to date as possible, but this depends on timely and accurate information about patient movement to that individuals are not inappropriately removed from a GP.” list.’
The Taxpayers Alliance said the public should not be subsidizing GPs in this way. Its researcher Tom Ryan said: “Unless these missing patients can be found, funding for GP surgeries should be changed accordingly.” (File image)
He blamed increased workloads and said more than 32 million appointments were made in September, almost five million more than the same month in 2019, but with 827 fewer full-time, fully qualified GPs than at the end of 2019.
He added: “Recent advances that allow timely electronic transfer of patient records between practices when a patient moves may help.”
A spokeswoman for the NHS Fraud Authority said its 2019 investigation “was effectively halted by difficulties in obtaining basic data, and our priorities shifted from this position with the NHS response to Covid-19”. “We have not yet reviewed the issue as we direct our resources to where intelligence indicates the most appropriate priorities lie.”