An NHS policy aimed at removing "ghost patients" — individuals who are no longer active on GP lists — is reportedly leaving some of the poorest people in England without access to essential healthcare, according to recent analysis. "Ghost patients" are those who may have moved, passed away, or stopped engaging with their GP practice, but who remain registered. Under previous NHS rules, inactive patients at risk of removal were given six months to respond to outreach. However, NHS England introduced an accelerated list validation timeline in October 2025, which now gives patients only three months to reply before being removed. According to an analysis by Healthtech-1, the number of registered patients in English GP practices dropped by 483,019 between October 2025 and July 2026. The most deprived fifth of GP practices accounted for about 138,400 of this decline — nearly 30% of the national total. While it is necessary to review GP lists as people move or pass away, GPs have reported that the faster timeline has led to some patients from poorer areas being incorrectly removed. This has created barriers to receiving treatment and forced GPs to re-register vulnerable and elderly patients, adding extra administrative work. Removing patients from GP lists can also disrupt their care and treatment. GP practices rely on the number of registered patients for income, and a drop in numbers can make it harder for them to cover running costs. A GP at a university practice in Southampton said the accelerated timeline is causing problems because patients are being incorrectly removed from their list and are struggling to access their prescriptions and treatment. "If you give prescriptions out to people, they’re on repeat and once they get kicked off the lists they can no longer access any prescriptions," he explained. "The risk is that if you’re unable to access your repeat prescriptions, your treatment will be affected." The GP also warned that the policy change is hitting patients from deprived and vulnerable backgrounds hardest. He noted that around 100 people were taken off their practice’s list without any reason, resulting in a loss of around £10,000 in income. These patients later contacted the practice to say they couldn't access their prescriptions and hadn't moved. The money lost has not been compensated, and similar issues have been reported elsewhere. Dr Clare Bannon, chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said GPs across England support the principle of keeping patient lists accurate but warned the current process is "seriously flawed." She called on NHS England to pause the exercise, as it is causing practices to lose tens of thousands of pounds in income and leading to active patients, including vulnerable individuals, being removed in error. An NHS spokesperson said there are robust checks in place to ensure vulnerable groups are not removed and that the process includes multiple contact attempts over up to five months before any action is taken. They emphasized the importance of ensuring patient contact details are correct for important health information and that NHS funding is allocated fairly.