Want to investigate GP patient lists?

UPDATE (Feb 24 2012): You can find GP surgery-level data on demographics and other contextual information on the NHS IC Indicators site.

We’ve been following developments related to GP patient lists and proposals to abolish GP boundaries for a while, and this week saw some particularly interesting developments .

Pule reported that Department of Health advisory body Primary Care Commissioning had issued guidance on “brutal new GP list cleansing targets next year”:

“[T]he guidance lists successful list-cleansing schemes and gives examples of targeted campaigns in South Gloucestershire, South West Essex and Berkshire West which resulted in the removal of 24,000 ghost patients.

“They include sending verification letters to all patients aged over 90 to 100 years and annually to all immigrants. If they do not respond, then these patients will be given a FP69 flag to inform their GP the patient will be removed from their list.

“They also say anyone who is out of the country for three months or more should be automatically struck off GP lists and that multi-occupancy dwellings should be targeted.”

Meanwhile Eastlondonlines reported on 2 of the 6 places chosen to pilot abolishing GP boundaries for a year from the beginning of April. These are: Continue reading

Link: the One GP’s Protest blog

If you’re interested in issues related to GPs, it’s worth taking a look at George Farrelly’s One GP’s Protest blog. George talks about his own concerns based on his experiences of being a GP, as well as points he’s spotted elsewhere in the online health community.

These include the pilots on removing boundaries to GP practices (“The ultimate aim (covert) is the de-regulation of English general practice”) and experiences on trying to deliver care to a patient at a distance, with a more detailed exploration of the issue here.

He’s also written about the problems with registration policy – an issue I’ve been exploring myself. In particular, he talks about the 2004 GP Contract, a useful document for anyone exploring issues relating to general practice.

Which makes me think – a post explaining the contract would be particularly useful. Would anyone like to blog about the 2004 Contract?