HEALTHY patients who have not visited their GP for five years could be barred from their doctor’s surgery under plans being drawn up in the region.

Under the NHS East of England proposals the patients would be sent two letters asking them to respond.

If they do not reply they could be removed from the GP practice list.

The NHS England East team sent a letter to local medical committees (LMCs) stating that people who had not seen their GP for five years “may be the people who no longer require services” and may be in “incredibly good health”.

GPs are paid about £136 for every patient on their list and routine “list cleansing” is already carried out to cut NHS costs.

Medical magazine Pulse, which published details of the plan, said thousands of “ghost patients” have been wrongly removed from patient lists in recent years.

An NHS England spokesman said: “Everyone is entitled to be registered with a GP regardless of how often they go to one.

“GP practices work hard to keep their patient lists accurate, but patients may not always tell their GPs when they are changing practices or leaving the area and so targeted updating - as recommended by the National Audit Office - is undertaken to minimise duplicate registration and 'ghost patients'."