Capita reported to NHS England that they had realised 160,000 patient medical records had been erroneously archived instead of sending to the subsequent GP practices (following further investigation, the number is closer to 148,000). These records will be sent to the practices that currently have the patients registered, and NHS England is expecting those practices to undertake an assessment of harm for each patient affected. GPC England has highlighted to NHS England the impact this would have on practices (as well as them not being to blame for the issue) and their patients, and has been negotiating to ensure practices receive support to compensate for this, not only for the inconvenience caused by Capita’s error, but to ensure that GPs and other practice staff are not taken away from direct patient facing provision.
Unfortunately, NHS England is not prepared to provide the necessary funding that is necessary to cover GP and practice staff time to do this assessment properly and GPC is not prepared to accept a substandard settlement for practices to compensate for the problems created by Capita. It has instructed its legal team to pursue alternative actions.
GPC will update on developments when any further news is available. Bham LMC have asked GPC to provide guidance on what practices should do if asked by NHS England to undertake this work before a satisfactory solution is in place, response awaited; needless to say the BLMC will keep practices informed.