NHS GPs are paid £350million a year to look after their ‘ghost patients’ who have died
- There are now 2.5 million non-existent patients lurking on surgery lists
- NHS is having to fork out £141 for each one, which equates to an average of £43,750 per surgery
- Numbers have soared by a fifth since 2008 despite a supposed clampdown
- Experts say although many ‘ghost patients’ are left on registers by mistake, some are kept on by doctors deliberately to earn themselves more cash
Sophie Borland Health Reporter
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Family doctors are being paid £350million a year to look after ‘ghost patients’ who have died or moved away, extraordinary figures reveal.
There are now 2.5 million non-existent patients lurking on surgery lists and the NHS is having to fork out £141 for each one, which equates to an average of £43,750 per surgery.
The numbers have soared by a fifth since 2008 despite a supposed clampdown by health bosses encouraging doctors to keep their registers up to date.
There are now 2.5 million non-existent patients lurking on surgery lists and the NHS is having to fork out £141 for each one, which equates to an average of £43,750 per surgery
Experts say that although many ‘ghost patients’ are left on registers by mistake, some are kept on by doctors deliberately to earn themselves more cash.
In one example, GPs in Streatham, south London, were found to have knowingly kept patients on their list who had died or moved to India and Ireland.
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This is a discrepancy of 2.51 million and means 4 per cent of those listed with GPs simply don’t exist. This figure has steadily risen since 2008 when it was just 2.1million
They were also billing the NHS extra cash for carrying out flu jabs and monitoring some patients for long-term conditions. Bosses have repeatedly told GPs to remove patients as soon as they die or move away.
But latest figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show there are 57.6 million patients registered with a GP in England compared to a population of 55.1 million.
This is a discrepancy of 2.51 million and means 4 per cent of those listed with GPs simply don’t exist. This figure has steadily risen since 2008 when it was just 2.1million.
But the NHS, which has now amassed a £2.45billion black hole in its budget, is obliged to pay surgeries an average of £141 per patient to cover care regardless of how often they make appointments. This means it is currently losing £354 million a year to patients who don’t exist.
Jim Gee, ex-chief executive of NHS Protect, the counter fraud organisation, said some GPs were keeping patients on their lists on purpose. Referring to his work cracking down on the practice, he added: ‘Some GPs knew perfectly well that patients had moved on but were just receiving the money for them. Some were just turning a blind eye.’
Dia Chakravarty, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be furious.
‘A system which allows over two million more people to be registered than there are in the country is clearly deeply flawed.’
An NHS England spokesman said: ‘GP practices work hard to keep their patient lists accurate, but patients may not always tell their GPs when they are changing practices or leaving the area.
‘Targeted updating – as recommended by the National Audit Office – is undertaken to minimise duplicate registration and ‘ghost patients’.’
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