Dozens of PMS practices are facing demands for sums running into five figures as NHS managers seek to adjust list sizes and claw back overpayments.
Cleveland LMC claims that the North East Primary Care Agency, which represents PCTs across the North East, is threatening to review scores of PMS contracts unless practices agree to pay back 60% of overpayments by the end of this financial year, and settle the full bill by April 2014.
It comes after a review found some practices were being over- or underpaid because no list size adjustments had been carried out for years – in some cases, since 2000.
Dr John Canning, secretary of Cleveland LMC, said the move would affect around 45 practices across four PCTs and while GPs supported the principle of adjusting lists, the timing was ‘unfair': ‘We've got an issue with the speed this is being done. There are substantial sums of money involved.'
A spokesperson for the North East Primary Care Services Agency said discussions had been carried out on a ‘North East-wide basis', but that no decision had yet been made on repayment.
