Good practice rewards

My eye was drawn to a recent report in the media with the headline Questions raised over GP bonus system. It referred to the new research on the GP contract, whereby doctors received extra money for hitting certain performance targets – the Quality and Outcomes Framework or QOF payments. These can amount to one third of the GP's pay and has helped push the average to above £100k.

The study suggested that the bonus system has had no real impact on the treatment of high blood pressure.An international team of experts looked at high blood pressure measures, as well as how many patients ended up getting ill. But they found 'no discernible' benefit from the scheme, the British Medical Journal reported. There was little improvement that could be attributed to the bonus system, although there did seem to be a small improvement in the numbers getting treated.

They concluded: 'Good quality of care for hypertension was stable or improving before pay for performance was introduced. Pay for performance had no discernible effects on processes of care or on hypertension related clinical outcomes. Generous financial incentives, as designed in the UK pay for performance policy, may not be sufficient to improve quality of care and outcomes for hypertension and other common chronic conditions'.