HC Deb 28 October 2003 vol 412 cc221-2W
Mr. Steen

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of GP practices in the United Kingdom that have registered children as temporary rather than permanent patients to avoid losing funding if they have a certain percentage of children registered who are not immunised. [134853]

Mr. Hutton

Everyone, including children, has the right to be registered with a general practitioner for free national health service treatment. We have no estimate of the numbers of GPs who de-register children from their patient lists in order to exclude them from the calculation of target payments for childhood immunisations. The General Medical Council and the profession itself opposes such actions and the Government expects primary care trusts to investigate any such cases.