GP practices 'offered rewards' for not referring patients to hospitals
Published 4 Oct 2015
GP practices are being offered thousands of pounds to cut the number of patients they refer to hospitals, according to an investigation.
A freedom of information study found practices were being given large financial “incentives” for not sending patients to hospitals for appointments such as consultations with specialists, scans and operations.
Read the full article here -
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/oct/01/gp-practices-offered-rewards-for-not-referring-patients-to-hospitals
What are your thoughts on this people?
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Doctors who do this are playing with patients lives and should be struck off, i agree there are some patients will fake an illness just to go to hospital.
I understand the idea is to get things that can be done at the surgery or in the community done without referring to hospital, to ease the pressure on hospitals - problem is, wherever there is a financial incentive, someone is likely to abuse the system to gain the reward. We already feel my husband's surgery is financially motivated rather than motivated by a desire to give good patient care, so a scheme like this is very concerning.
One would hope doctors will be ethical over this, but they are human and I dare say not all will be - look at Dr Harold Shipman!
