GPs offered £30 to cancel hospital follow-ups for patients !

GPs are being offered a £30 ‘administration fee' for cancelling outpatient follow-up appointments and doing the work themselves, in the latest scheme by clinical commissioning groups to tackle hospital waiting lists.

"If you actually exchange money, even an admin fee, it puts things on a different footing. There should be no financial inducement for changing care pathways.'

GPC negotiator Dr Chaand Nagpaul said the scheme would lead to the perception of a conflict of interest for GPs.

He said: ‘It has the potential for creating perverse incentives, and it would make far more sense to develop clinical pathways that are evidence-based and clinically focused.'

‘Cancelling appointments is not a logical way to approach this.  Patients are not in a best position to judge the most appropriate location for a follow up appointment.'

Dr David Shore, a GP who refused to take part in the Rugby pilot of the scheme, said he feared the scheme would be ‘very damaging' for the professional reputation of GPs in the area.

‘We are generalists, not specialists. To be asked to assume specialist follow up without specialist training is a recipe for disaster,' he said.

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/main-content/-/article_display_list/13740794/gps-offered-30-to-cancel-hospital-follow-ups-for-patients