Taxpayers fork out £400 million a YEAR to GPs to treat millions of people who don’t exist
Figures show doctors are failing to remove from their books people who have died, moved or left the country
TAXPAYERS fork out £400million a year to GPs to treat millions of patients that do not exist.
Figures show doctors are failing to remove from their books people who have died, moved or left the country.
The number of people registered with GPs in England rose from 57.2 million in September 2015 to 57.3 million in March 2016.
But population estimates for 2016 are just 54.3 million, based on data from the 2011 Census — a difference of three million.
And with practices being paid around £141 for each patient on their lists, they may be ripping off taxpayers to the tune of £423 million a year.
A TaxPayers’ Alliance spokesman called the system “deeply flawed and wasteful”.
The figures were revealed in a report by NHS Digital, which compiles health service statistics.
It called the discrepancy “list inflation”.
NHS England has employed private firm Capita to carry out “list cleansing”.
It means patients who do not visit a GP for five years face being axed from the practice.
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But Dr Richard Vautrey, of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, cautioned against rushing towards an arbitrary “cleansing” system.
He said it is important that the public “is not denied access to local GP services”.
Prof Maureen Baker, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, denied practices profit from non-existent patients and said keeping accurate lists was NHS England’s responsibility.
An NHS England spokesman said lists were being updated and all savings would be reinvested into GP services.
