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Dr John Hughes: Patients are ‘upset and angry’

In my practice, patients seemed to be removed and re-registered and it’s not clear why. Sometimes it’s because mail has been returned. Around 10% to 15% of patients are re-registering. I’ve seen 30–40 patients return in the past year.

A number of patients were taken off and when they came in for something they said: ‘No, we’re still at the same address and we want to stay with you.’

So we put them back on the list and then a few weeks later it happened again. They were upset and angry. They felt we should give an explanation, but we called the PCT and they couldn’t give a real explanation for why it had happened.

Dr John Hughes is honorary secretary at Manchester LMC and a GP in Crumpsall, Manchester