NHS premium threatens GP incomes

"I am romantic about the NHS; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country." Donald Berwick, MD, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Family doctors face losing part of their current income to pay for an incentive for good quality commissioning and for keeping National Health Service costs under control, the government proposed on Thursday.

The “premium” payment would have to come from within existing resources, the Department of Health said, with the GP consortia – who under the government’s plans will be buying the bulk of NHS care – then deciding which practices within the consortia will receive the payment.

The proposal that “if you come in over budget you will lose money” will “scare people”, said Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association’s family doctors committee. With the NHS already in deficit in some parts of the country, and with a big squeeze to come on spending, the proposal would worry GPs, Dr Buckman said. “How scary it will be will depend on how much is involved”.

Oops.