‘Ghost patient’ policy wrongly removing at-risk people from GP lists, doctors say

GPs say they have had to re-register vulnerable and older patients who have been removed from practice lists in error. Photograph: Julian Claxton/Alamy

An NHS policy to remove “ghost patients” from GP lists is inadvertently leaving some of the poorest people in England without vital healthcare, analysis has found.

Under previous NHS rules, inactive patients at risk of being removed from their GP practice were given six months to respond to outreach. But under NHS England’s accelerated list validation timeline, introduced last October, patients now have only three months to reply.