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Removing financial incentives for GPs led to decline in performance, finds study

The removal of financial incentives is associated with an immediate decline in general practices’ performance on quality indicators, an analysis of electronic medical records for one third of GP practices in England has shown.1

Reductions were greatest for indicators related to giving health advice but also affected clinical activities, with a nearly 20% reduction in cholesterol testing in patients with a stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) in the first year after payments through the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) stopped.

“Removal of financial incentives was associated with an immediate decline in performance on quality measures,” said the study authors. The study was led by Bruce Guthrie, from the University of Dundee, working with researchers from the National Institute for Health and …