Recommendation 6

NHS England again made payments to suspended GPs who were not eligible to receive them and has failed to adequately recover these overpayments. NHS England has made overpayments worth £1.3 million to suspended medical practitioners since 2017–18, just £33,000 of which it has recovered. For the second consecutive year the C&AG qualified his regularity opinion on NHS England’s accounts as a result of NHS England making these ineligible payments, which are contrary to statutory regulations. NHS England has failed to establish a system of control to ensure suspension payments were only paid to medical practitioners who met the qualifying criteria, and that these payments were stopped as soon as people were no longer eligible for them. Given the control failings that led to these overpayments were initially identified during the 2021–22 audit, this continued lack of appropriate safeguards over taxpayers’ money is unacceptable. NHS England has committed to reviewing all suspension payments and will be implementing a new national system to review and process suspension payments, replacing the existing regional system. Recommendation 6a): NHS England must ensure the planned changes to its control framework are implemented by summer 2024 to avoid further loss of money that should be used for patient care. b): NHS England must ensure that amounts that have been overpaid are in recovery by the summer of 2024. 8 Department of Health and Social Care2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts 1 Internal control failings and timely financial reporting