20.07.16
BMA calls NHS England plan to cleanse GP lists ‘unacceptable’
Patients who have not had contact with their GP in five years could be removed from their list in plans being condemned by the British Medical Association (BMA).
GP website Pulse reported that under a new contract between NHS England and Capita, Capita will contact every GP practice every year requesting a list of all patients who have not had contact with the practice in five years.
Primary Care Support England (PCSE), Capita’s GP support body, will then send two letters to the patients. If no response is received, an ‘FP69 flag’ will be put on their GP practice system, requiring the practice to establish contact with the patient within six months or else deregister them.
Dr Robert Morley, chair of the BMA’s GP contracts and regulations subcommittee, said: “Patients have a right to be registered unless they move or register elsewhere, even if they don’t need to or choose not to access services. So running a fishing exercise using this arbitrary time limit is wholly unacceptable.
“NHS England can only obtain this information by requesting it from practices; passing this on would breach patient confidentiality and so it cannot possibly be considered reasonable; it is not therefore a requirement under the regulations and any change to the contractual regulations, which NHS England is implying might happen, is as a result of negotiation between DH and the GPC and not a matter for NHS England to determine.”
The scheme is designed to help the NHS reduce its deficit by avoiding paying money to practices for patients who have died or moved away or do not require medical care. It has previously been used in London, but NHS England is now planning to implement it nationally.
Yesterday, a report from the Health Select Committee raised fresh alarm about the state of NHS finance, saying that the committee was “not confident” that the health service will be able to achieve £22bn efficiency savings by 2020.
‘Disgraceful behaviour’
Research by Cambridgeshire Local Medical Committee (LMC) suggests that deregistering patients particularly affects children aged eight to fifteen and men aged 20 to 45, who are less likely to see a doctor and to reply to requests for contact from GPs.
Dr Tony Grewal, medical secretary of London-wide LMCs, said deregistering patients was “disgraceful behaviour” that “completely goes against the principles” of the General Practice Forward View.
He said the need to deregister patients would create extra work for patients and mean less money for GP practices.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said that the organisation opposed the changes because they could lead to patients being removed in error and that they should be implemented “with extreme caution”.
She added: “This project is not being done in the interests of the patient at all. In fact, it is oddly taking away NHS rights away from people who are fit, healthy and have not needed to seek medical advice for a while.”
An NHS England spokesperson said that the changes were supported by PCSE. They added: “The National Audit Office and House of Commons Public Accounts Committee have all drawn attention to the need to ensure accurate patient lists, and for proper stewardship of public funds.
“We doubt that contractual change would be needed but, should it be, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.”
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