§ 30. Mr. Liptonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she is aware that, whereas the official estimate of the population of Inner London is 2,700,320, the number of patients on doctors' lists is 3,223,737; and if she will take action to deal with this discrepancy.
§ Dr. OwenThe former Inner London Executive Council began a special two-year check on lists in 1972. This operation was temporarily suspended during National Health Service reorganisation. Responsibliity for maintaining satisfactory lists has now passed to the new authorities and my Department is now writing to them about completion of the special check. It has, however, already resulted in the removal of 74,000 incorrect registrations. By the end of 1973 many thousands of notices were awaiting responses from doctors and some 150,000 further cases had been identified for removal action. There is undoubtedly scope for further removals and these will be processed as soon as possible.