Around 35,000 patients have been mistakenly struck off GP registers in the last year after NHS authorities botched attempts to update records.
As part of a money-saving exercise, the NHS has tried to remove so-called ‘ghost patients’ from GP registers. This includes patients that have died or moved to a different area, as well as children and elderly patients that have failed to attend vaccination appointments.
It is hoped the scheme will save the NHS £85m, as funds are allocated to GP practices according to the number of patients on their register.
However, an investigation conducted by doctors’ magazine Pulse has found that up to 35,000 patients have been wrongfully removed since April last year.
This has caused patients to be denied vital check-ups, cancer screening appointments and delays in obtaining medication.
In some areas of the UK, more than one third of patients were mistakenly removed. The Thames Valley area was the worst affected, where more than 40% of patients who were taken off lists had to re-register.
This has led to angry scenes in GP surgeries, with GPs admitting that NHS authorities have become increasingly heavy-handed when removing patients from list.
In other cases, patients were removed by the practices themselves, which say they are too over-stretched to manage the workload. This includes one GP practice which de-registered an entire nursing home of 59 residents.
A spokesman for NHS England said: “NHS England takes all possible steps it can to contact patients and minimise the number who need to re-register – but there will always be some circumstances where patients do not respond and at that point we have to assume that they have moved away from that address and are therefore not in reality receiving services from that GP.”
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