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Londonwide LMCs strikes list-cleansing deal

Exclusive Londonwide LMCs has struck a deal with NHS London on a set of principles to govern future list-cleaning initiatives, in an attempt to protect GPs from any repeat of the ‘extremely damaging' schemes implemented in some parts of the capital.

Under the agreement, GPs will no longer be subjected to ‘one-hit' list-cleansing drives of the type that saw NHS Brent suddenly wipe 38,000 patients from GP lists earlier this year.  Instead, list validation is intended to be a ‘rolling programme'.

Dr Tony Grewal, medical director of Londonwide LMCs and a GP in Hillingdon, north-west London, said: ‘There have been list-cleansing exercises in London that have been extremely damaging for practices, patients and professional-management relations. We have agreed to set out some principles for the sorts of things that, until now, have been negotiated at PCT level.'

He said the policy, part of Londonwide LMCs' and NHS London's Once for London programme, had already protected GPs after NHS Outer North East London abandoned plans to repeat a major list-cleansing drive, in favour of an exercise meeting with the new principles.

‘The last list cleansing initiative in Waltham Forest was extremely damaging to practices,' Dr Grewal said. ‘The Once for London document arrived at NHS ONEL a week or two back and they have modified their process to meet those principles.'

A spokesman from NHS Outer North East London said:

'NHS outer north east London has been actively involved in the development of the pan London principles and has agreed that the future exercise will be underpinned by these principles.'