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Patrick Burgess says he was removed from the patients list at his local surgery without being informed |
Why this pensioner has lost his patience with GP ‘list-cleaning’
Primary care trust defends procedure that aims to remove surgeries’ ‘ghosts’
WHEN the computer said “no” at his GP clinic, a Somers Town pensioner discovered that he had fallen victim to ‘list-cleaning’ – a fate that has befallen hundreds of others, the New Journal has learned.
Camden’s cash-strapped health authority has removed thousands of patients’ names from GPs’ registers in a bid to eliminate “ghosts” – people who have moved away – but administrative shortcomings appear to have accounted for hundreds more.
Sheltered housing resident Patrick Burgess, 64, of Clyde Court, arrived at the Somers Town Medical Centre in Chalton Street on Friday to discover that he had been a victim of the procedure.
He said: “I went in for a repeat prescription but when I tried to make an appointment the woman looked at her computer and said ‘you’re not a patient any more’. I was incensed. I have been a patient for five and a half years and, officially, I am disabled. I should be receiving constant treatment.”
In a drive to reduce the lists that began last year, Camden Primary Care Trust – the body which oversees and funds GP clinics – has ordered clinics to write to patients who have not been in for 12 months to check they want to stay on the practice’s register.
Anyone who failed to reply is written to again, and, if they fail to respond, are struck off the list. But the PCT confirmed that because Somers Town Medical Centre could not provide a list of absentees, every single patient was a target for de-listing, and had been written to.
Mr Burgess denied that the PCT had contacted him.
He said: “If there had been a letter I’d have been up in arms. Most of the people in Clyde Court are registered at Somers Town and no one I know has received a letter.”
Dr Stephen Amiel, chairman of Camden’s Local Medical Committee, said Mr Burgess’s case was “one of many hundreds, if not thousands”.
He said: “People have been removed from doctors’ lists with all sorts of distress and confusion. Records also disappear for weeks and months on end which I think can have implications for patients’ health.”
A Camden PCT spokeswoman said yesterday (Wednesday): “The patient removals from the Somers Town Medical Centre are part of a year-long practice list-cleaning programme that is taking place in all GP practices in Camden. Many GP practice patient lists are out of date and some patients have moved away.”
The list-cleaning programme provides accurate disease registers, immunisation and screening programmes.
“By having accurate lists it assists with PCT planning and resource allocation and it ensures that public money is appropriately spent,” the spokeswoman said.
“The list-cleaning programme will not affect any patients’ rights to access a GP. If a patient is incorrectly removed from the practice list and subsequently presents at the practice, the practice can simply reregister the patient.” |
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