Anger over ‘cash for diagnoses’ dementia plan
There is no doubt that this creates the wrong impression about the importance of early diagnosis and prevention. What I did not know was that many GPs already get bonus payments for other diagnosis and treatment activities. It makes me instinctively uncomfortable. I think it would be jolly useful to have a very clear and open national debate about how these incentive schemes affect our treatment and their role in underpinning the viability of more marginal and often rural doctor’s surgeries. The article tells us:
Family doctors are already financially rewarded for carrying a host of medical checks, with a portion of their pay related to tasks such as taking blood pressure, measuring cholesterol and carrying out tests for conditions such as diabetes.
But the scheme is understood to be the first national initiative to offer doctors financial rewards for diagnosing patients with any condition.