The Guardian features Healthtech-1's analysis of GP list cleansing.

LONDON, ENGLAND (30th September 2026) – The Guardian has reported Healthtech-1's analysis of the reduction in patients registered at a GP. The analysis shows the losses have fallen hardest on England's most deprived communities.

In October 2025, NHS England cut the time a flagged patient has to respond before being removed from their GP list, from six months to three.

The Guardian reported that the change is wrongly removing vulnerable and elderly people, cutting off their access to prescriptions and treatment and reducing their practices' funding.

The Guardian cited Healthtech-1's analysis to July 2026. This data shows registered GP lists in England fell by 483,019 patients from October 2025. The most deprived fifth of practices accounted for around 138,400 of those losses, just under 30% of the national total.

Clinical Adviser at Healthtech-1 and former National Medical Director for Transformation at NHS England, Professor Erika Denton, said: "The registered list audit is trying to fix a real problem, but it's fuelling a second one. Thousands of patients need to find their way back into a system that isn't set up to make that easy - and data shows that burden may be landing hardest on the areas that can least afford it."

Practice Managers told Healthtech-1 that removed patients are often elderly, frail or vulnerable, and many have had to re-register at the same practice.

One Practice Manager said: "Families in short-term tenancies and temporary or emergency accommodation move addresses often, which means they simply never receive that correspondence - it doesn't mean they've left the area, or that they no longer want to be registered."

Some practices are using technology to help connect patients to practices and reduce administrative burden. Healthtech-1’s Bookable.health platform has more than 3,000 appointments per day. Just under a third of patients using it, 29 per cent, had no registered GP beforehand, showing the effect is bringing people back into the system rather than simply redistributing existing registrations.

Oliver Large, Policy Lead at Healthtech-1, said: “Healthtech-1 is a technology provider, but we also engage proactively with government. Working with GP practices every day, we can see problems like this early, and we have the data to show where they are landing. We’ll keep using that data, our expertise and our network to raise issues facing primary care access and to help government building public services that works for patients and NHS staff alike.”

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Read the full article at: The Guardian: 'Ghost patient' policy wrongly removing at-risk people from GP lists, doctors say

For enquiries, please contact press@healthtech1.uk.