NHS cash for cuts
FURY AS GPs OFFERED BONUS TO KEEP PATIENTS AWAY FROM HOSPITAL:
FAMILY doctors are being offered “cash for cuts” bonuses for not referring patients to hospitals.
GPs could get up to 50% of NHS savings under the scheme meaning they stand to profit each time they do not refer a patient.
Family Doctor Association chief Dr Peter Swinyard said: “It means GPs are paid to not look after patients. It’s a serious dereliction of duty.”
The payouts are from clinical commissioning groups under pressure to ease the strain on hospitals. Freedom of Information responses from 181 CCGs showed a quarter offer some financial incentive to cut referrals to specialists.
Eleven of them offer a direct incentive to cut referrals to a target level, found the probe by GPs’ magazine Pulse. Of these, five – who are responsible for 1.8 million patients – have plans to give a share of savings back to the GPs, some as much as 50%.
Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard of the Royal College of GPs said: “Payments to reduce referrals would erode the trust our patients have in us.
“Cash incentives based on how many referrals GPs make have no place in the NHS.”
It is not known if any GPs have accepted incentive payments. Dr Amanda Doyle of NHS Clinical Commissioners said: “Any initiative that aims to manage referrals must put patients at the heart of decisions.” Public satisfaction with GPs is down to 65%, the British Social Attitudes survey found – its lowest level since the survey began in the 1980s.
GPs are paid not to look after patients... a dereliction of duty DR PETER SWINYARD OF FAMILY DOCTOR ASSOC.