UK: GPs offered cash bonuses to hit swine flu uptake targets

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http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=4124271 & cid=Latest_headlines_1_101109

GPs offered cash

bonuses to hit swine flu uptake

targets10 Nov 09

By Lilian Anekwe

Exclusive: GPs at the centre of one of the summer’s swine flu hotspots

have been offered bonuses worth thousands of pounds extra for hitting

vaccination targets, Pulse can reveal.

NHS managers in Birmingham are so worried about the prospect of a winter

outbreak that they have offered practices up to 50% over and above the

payments agreed between the GPC and NHS Employers if they vaccinate a

high proportion of the population.

The revelation came as Pulse learned the

Department of Health has given PCTs

the power to impose financial penalties on practices if they are forced

to suspend routine work, raising fears GPs will be treated starkly

differently by NHS managers during the outbreak depending on where they

work.

NHS Heart of Birmingham revealed a sliding scale of bonuses, on top of

the £5.25 practices will get per vaccination of patients in target groups

and the relaxation of QOF patient survey thresholds if they hit the DH’s

uptake target of 50.7% in at-risk patients under 65 years.

A spokesperson for the PCT said: ‘In recognition of the additional

workload, the PCT will pay a high-coverage bonus.’ GPs will get a bonus

of 10% even if they are 20% down on the Government target, and if they

achieve more than 90% coverage the bonus will rise to 50%.

Dr Morley, executive secretary of Birmingham LMC and a GP in the

city, said the extra payments were ‘welcome’. ‘We are asking every

practice to give us information about the burden of work so that we can

arrange payment if necessary.’

Pulse, however, has uncovered documents issued to PCTs by the DH, giving

trusts the power to impose financial penalties for the ‘cessation or

reduction of clinical services’.

PCTs are also being encouraged to visit practices unannounced to check

that the workload pressures or staff absences given as reasons for

suspension of services are genuine and ‘to validate them at any time

during or after a period of service suspension’.

The new guidance documents – distributed to PCTs by NHS Primary Care

Contracting, a policy-implementation body acting on behalf of the DH –

fly in the face of Government guidance issued to PCTs in August.

That document, Pandemic Flu: Planning and Responding to Primary Care

Capacity Challenges, encouraged trusts to pay practices that were forced

to provide cover for neighbouring practices under buddying-up

arrangements up to £1,250 per 1,000 patients and advised that ‘the PCT

should not take any action to recover monies paid during the period the

practice is closed’.

A DH spokesperson said: ‘It is only right PCTs and GPs are well prepared

for all circumstances.’

Swine flu cases in England rose by 8%, from 78,000 to 84,000, last week.

GPs have begun the task of vaccinating those in at-risk

categories.

Last week, amid calls from the Conservatives, the Government announced it

planned to extend the vaccination programme to children aged between five

and 16.

Birmingham’s swine flu bonus plans

-

30-49.9% coverage – bonus of 10%

50-59.9% coverage – bonus of 15%

60-69.9% coverage – bonus of 20%

70-79.9% coverage – bonus of 25%

80-89.9% coverage – bonus of 30%

90-99.9% coverage – bonus of 50%

Source: Heart of Birmingham PCT

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