The number of patients who may not exist, but are registered with their GP, has increased enormously

THE number of ghost patients registered with GPs has increased by almost two-thirds in the past five years, figures show.

It has risen to 5.8 million, up from 3.6 million in 2018, NHS Digital statistics show.

Ghost patients are patients who have died or moved to other operations, but whose records have not been updated.

GPs receive an average of £164.64 for each patient on their list.

It means they could have been paid £955 million for people they don't treat.

Tom Ryan, a researcher at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: “Taxpayers are cutting back on users of services that may not even exist.”

Dr. Victoria Tzortziou-Brown from the Royal College of GPs said: “It's nothing sinister.

“It's not a conscious pursuit of profit.”

A spokeswoman for NHS England said it works with GP practices to review and update patient lists “and it is vital that practices do this regularly so they are as accurate as possible”.

A spokeswoman for the NHS Counter Fraud Authority said: “The NHSCFA planned to carry out an intelligence review into the nature and extent of GP fraud in 2019.

“This was to improve our understanding of the risks that fraud and error in general practice poses to the NHS, particularly in relation to GP capitation (this is the fixed amount paid to GPs for each registered patient).

“It was effectively halted due to difficulties in obtaining core data and our priorities shifted from this position with the NHS response to Covid 19.

“We have not yet revisited the issue as we focus our resources where the intelligence community indicates the most appropriate priorities lie.”