Capita set to re-start crackdown on GP practice 'ghost patients'
Capita will shortly re-start the process of GP list cleansing to remove so-called 'ghost patients', it has been revealed.
The responsibility to vet GP lists for patients who are registered but no longer attend the practice was part of Capita's original contract when it took on primary care support services in 2015.
However, the exercise was put on hold amid the upheaval faced by practices in the wake of the outsourcing, which saw NHS England cut 40% from its budget to provide such services.
NHS England said it had also kept it on hold while it worked out a 'simplified' checking process that would 'reduce the administrative burden on practices'.
And, although Capita had originally been contracted to carry out GP list cleansing exercises annually, NHS England's new update says it will now be done every three years.
An NHS England letter, addressed to practice managers, said: 'Soon, PCSE will be recommencing the process of inviting GP practices, on a three-yearly basis, to reconcile their patient list with the National Health Application and Infrastructure Services (NHAIS) system held in PCSE and the Personal Demographic System (Spine).
'Practices will receive a request via email from PCSE which will outline the steps required for them to submit a file of their patient list details to PCSE. The process of reconciliation will then identify any differences in the list recorded and individual differences (e.g. patient address).
'Practices will be advised what administrative actions need to be taken on their clinical system to correct differences.'
The list cleansing exercise will begin with Capita 'contacting practices to verify the registration details of patients aged over 100', the letter added.
The letter said this will be followed by other groups as recommended by NHS England, including:
- patients aged under 16 recorded as living alone;
- patients recorded as living in demolished properties;
- patients recorded as being registered at student accommodation for over four years;
- addresses with apparent multiple occupancy;
- transient patients.
The news comes as Pulse has previously revealed problems with list cleansing since Capita took on the primary care support contract in 2015.
In 2016, it was revealed that Capita had erroneously embarked on a list cleansing drive - flagging up to 15% of patients at some practices - despite the exercise of list cleansing still being under negotiations with the BMA GP Committee.
Meanwhile, pre-Capita list cleansing drives saw tens of thousands of genuine patients being removed off GP lists.
There removals persisted even where practices had already flagged patients as ‘validated’, leaving them out of pocket for the time sent identifying mistakes and causing distress to patients.
Family Doctor Association chair Dr Peter Swinyard said current 'discrepancies' between the population and patient numbers on GP lists were more likely due to problems with support services than 'nasty, skiving, money-grabbing' GPs.
He added: 'It’s more a politically correct exercise than actually useful and creates more grief and pain for patients.
'It’s not until they need us that they find out they have been struck off.’
GP practices have suffered years of administrative problems since Capita took on the primary care support contract.
And last week, the GPC renewed calls for the contract to be discontinued after Capita's failure deliver nearly 48,000 items of correspondence relating to cervical cancer screening.
Readers' comments (9)
National Hopeless Service | GP Partner/Principal20 Nov 2018 4:10pm
Crapita and doing something shouldnt be in the same sentence.
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Angus Podgorny | GP Partner/Principal20 Nov 2018 4:38pm
Couldn't they just start with learning to walk?
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Turn out the lights | GP Partner/Principal20 Nov 2018 4:54pm
Prepare for more turmoil and patient complaint when they phone to be seen and we tell them they are not registerd with us anymore.Excellent worklife in the UK at the moment.
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Truth finder | GP Partner/Principal20 Nov 2018 5:06pm
Oh dear, here it goes again. Patients were wrongly removed as stated by pulse. We had complaints and was out of pocket before. Capita does not fill us with confidence. Neither should it fill NHSE with confidence. So much for reflection.
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Bob Hodges | GP Partner/Principal20 Nov 2018 5:31pm
Can we have our 6% GMS top-slice for Ghost Patients back in the global sum then please?
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Michael Farrell | Salaried GP20 Nov 2018 7:33pm
Bob correct
6 percent is topsliced from GMS for ghost patients as it was sensibly realised chasing ghosts was time consuming / expensive / difficult to do
If we do the work of list cleansing , then this needs to be paid for by the topsliced 6 percent which is topsliced for this purpose .
Where are the BMA on this ? should I hold my breath ?
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Occams Razor | GP Partner/Principal20 Nov 2018 8:03pm
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120524072401/http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_4071967.pdf
Bob is right. Section 5.16 is the key part. The GPC need to be all over this like a rash as it’s clearly stated. I saved a copy as I suspect this will disappear soon.
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Took Early Retirement | GP Partner/Principal | Hampshire21 Nov 2018 9:14am
Don't worry: if Crapita are doing it, the numbers of ghost patients will increase.
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Sally GP | GP Partner/Principal21 Nov 2018 6:16pm
Surely they shouldn’t start anything new until they’ve put all their resources into sorting out all their previous errors,pension mistakes etc. (Obviously their remuneration for ghost hunting shouldn’t be handed over until they do start it either)
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