GP reduced referrals bonus slammed

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The policy introduced by Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) will see average-sized doctors' practices earning up to £20,000 for reviewing and reducing their referral rate.

If doctors hit their targets then the PCT will be left with a bill of £1.2 million. But they believe the expense is justified because the increasing amount of patients being sent to hospital is estimated to cost £6 million.

The annual number of patients referred to Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust is up by 8%.

Surgeries with 10,000 patients will receive £10,000 to look at their referral procedures, and up to £10,000 more for reducing their rates.

Sue Woollacott, chairman of the Patient Support Group at Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, said: "I think it's absolutely ridiculous. It seems to imply that GPs aren't presently making good judgments and need financial incentives in order to do that.

"If I were a GP and getting payments for the practice it would seem like some sort of bribe to me.

"To delay patients, who are often elderly, who need good orthopaedic care, and to delay them from getting necessary care can often complicate the procedures that they then eventually have to have."

A spokeswoman for Oxfordshire PCT said: "We have got significantly increasing rates of referral into secondary care providers.

"We're not sure why, so we're trying to understand why.