More than 5,200 people were not invited for routine screenings including bowel, breast and cervical cancer screenings, due to issues with ‘incomplete’ GP registrations, a minister has revealed.
Public health and prevention minister Ashley Dalton told Parliament in a statement yesterday that this happened as patients’ general practice registration process ‘was not completed correctly’, meaning their details were not passed to NHS screening systems.
She said that as a result, around 5,261 people have not been invited for routine screening, and that records indicate that up to 10 patients have been diagnosed with a relevant cancer and were not invited for certain screening.
Around 10 people who were not invited for screening ‘may have died from a relevant cancer’, she added.
She said: ‘In the summer of 2024, a small number of people contacted NHS England to say they had not been invited for screening. NHS England commissioned further investigation which led to an issue within GP registration being identified in late December.
‘This issue, which has continued since 2008, affected the bowel, breast and cervical cancer screening programmes, as well as abdominal aortic aneurysm screening.
‘It did not affect the diabetic eye screening programme, or any of the antenatal or newborn screening programmes. Since then, work has been undertaken to identify the individuals affected. Where relevant, work is ongoing to assess any clinical implications of their delayed screening.’
According to the minister, the problem relates to when a patient registers at a new GP practice, and to GP registrations returned to some GP practices by Primary Care Support England (PCSE) for further information or review that had not been completed, or the GP practice had not sent a message to complete the patient’s registration.
She added: ‘Incomplete registrations were not passed to the NHS screening programme IT systems and, therefore, some people had not been invited to their routine screening. Processes have been put in place to make sure that new GP registrations will be closely monitored and updated on systems as necessary.’
The Government has explained that the error behind this problem occurred when patients had registered at a new GP practice and ‘key data’ relevant for screening was ‘not entered’ or was ‘incorrect’.
Patients were not informed of this error, and it did not affect their access to other NHS services because the issue only relates to a validation process specific to transferring patient details to the NHS screening IT system, it added.
PCSE, which handles back-office functions for GPs, has been supplied by the company Capita since 2015. Capita has told Pulse that PCSE is ‘not responsible’ for the issue.
A spokesperson said: ‘PCSE is not responsible for the GP registration issue that has affected some screening invitations but was included in the background information provided by NHSE so that a clear picture of the overall process could be provided to the secretary of state, the House of Commons, ICBs and GP practices.’
NHS England posted letters to affected patients who are still eligible for a screening programme, or who were previously eligible for a screening programme but now exceed the programme’s upper age limit.
The letters will explain what has happened and next steps, including details of the helpline which has been set up by NHS England.
NHS England director for vaccinations and screening Steve Russell said: ‘The NHS is contacting 5,261 people who have not been invited for screening due to their GP registration not being fully completed – this issue has now been fixed and everyone affected will be offered support and any catch-up screening as soon as possible, including where they may now be above screening age.
‘We would like to extend our sincere apologies to those affected for this error and any additional worry this may have caused – anyone who is concerned they may have missed an invitation to screening can call our dedicated helpline for support and further information.
‘Around 15 million people are invited to NHS screening every year and it is important that everyone eligible can access these life-saving programmes. The NHS has issued guidance to GP Practices and ICBs to make sure all patient registrations are fully completed and has put in place new measures to ensure all eligible people are invited for screening.’
RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said that it was ‘distressing’ to hear that some people may have missed health interventions as a result of ‘inadvertent administrative errors’.
She said: ‘GP practices take the management of their patient records very seriously but if mistakes happen, it’s important robust safeguards are in place to identify and rectify them, so that patients can continue to receive the care and services they need.
‘Now that the issue has been identified, serious action must be taken to contact those who have been affected – and we have been reassured this has already started – and ensure that steps are taken so that something similar cannot happen again.
‘National screening programmes, which are evidence-based and approved by NICE and the UK National Screening Committee, have potentially saved millions of lives so it’s important that these are accessible for all patients who are eligible.’
Pulse has requested more details on the issue which caused the error.
The message from NHSEngland, PCSE and the Minister appears to be attempting to blame General Practices for something that is clearly not their fault or responsibility, as revealed by the facts in this article ! This shows lack of integrity in the minister, NHSE and PCSE – they should all be replaced.
Clearly, not all screening was affected (diabetic eye screening was not), so the problem is not within GP practices, but within the software or systems that PCSE use to add people to screening call lists. This system needs immediate overhaul.
Next, it appears that PCSE is rejecting patient registrations improperly. The justifications for rejections are not given, but clearly PCSE is not monitoring the process of obtaining the ‘more information’ that they ‘say’ they require from GPs, and failing to complete the screening call registrations as a result – BUT ONLY FOR SOME SCREENING SYSTEMS. This is a major failing at PCSE, and the Head needs replacing.
Last, if only 10 patients were found to have cancer outside the screening programmes during the period, how can the Minister say that these 10 patients all died as a result of GP negligence? It seems a very high fatality rate, which is dubious. It also indicates that all of them had completely un-noticed screening-detecatble cancers, which is dubious. Minister should apologise and resign for such misleading and accusatory statements.