Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what effect having non-resident patients on GP practice lists has on the funding of those practices; and whether funding is clawed back in those circumstances.

Primary care contractors have a duty to maintain their registered patient lists in a current and accurate state. The rolling programme of list maintenance as set out in the Primary Medical Care Policy and Guidance Manual is intended to update and adjust payments to general practitioner (GP) practices quarterly based the current list of registered patients.

In line with NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Primary Medical Care Policy and Guidance Manual, Primary Care Support England and clinical commissioning groups are expected to engage in regular proactive list maintenance with general practices. The Manual provides practices and commissioners with further information on how they can maintain accurate and up-to-date patient registration lists. While GPs are reliant on patients to submit information promptly, where a GP becomes aware of potential patients who need to be de-registered, practices verify whether they have attended the practice and attempt to make contact before removing patients from their registry. Additionally, checks for new entrants from abroad are completed a year after their first registration to ensure that the lists of registered patients are as accurate as possible.