NHS England has admitted that figures used to calculate Minimum Payment Income Guarantee (MPIG) losses at a number of GP practices were wrong but critics are concerned that the organisation still has not recognised the full extent of the problem.

Claims by several practices about incorrect figures and calculations have already caused the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, to intervene, promising that officials would examine the discrepancies.

Under the MPIG support package agreed by NHS England following protests last year, practices were offered a two-year reprieve on funding cuts though payments under section 96 of the 2006 NHS Act.

However, the package is only available to ‘outlier’ practices facing losses of over £3 per patient per year in deprived areas and only 17 of 98 identified outlying practices were initially offered support. Critics believe that the questions over NHS England’s calculations mean that many more practices should have been classed as outliers or offered a bailout.

Now, under information obtained under Freedom of Information Act requests, it has been discovered that a total of nine practices across England have so far challenged NHS England’s decision not to award them a bailout, while of 11 offers made in London, just six have been finalised and outside the capital, 10 offers of support have been agreed but none has been signed.

A spokeswoman for NHS England said that while the organisation would not comment on individual cases, it is important to note that it is applying a consistent approach by using the same model across England. She added that the wrong weighted list size had been used in only two cases and that this has been rectified and the practices involved notified.