A UK plan to offer doctors financial incentives to reduce overmedication for the elderly has drawn fire
A county in the UK is proposing a novel scheme to reduce the number of drugs given to the elderly by offering GPs cash to cut back on prescriptions.
Health officials in Oxfordshire want to give GP surgeries a “financial incentive to reduce prescribing costs” by sharing savings from giving fewer medicines to the frail elderly, UK media outlets have reported.
The financial incentives were intended to encourage family doctors to “review the quality, safety and cost effectiveness of their prescribing”.
NHS Oxfordshire clinical commissioning group had set GPs targets in a bid to save at least £1.45 million ($A2.5 million) from its budget, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.
Practices were told to cut spending on medication by at least £2 per care-home resident, and told they could keep £1 per patient, plus half of any more savings made.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the scheme has drawn some criticism, with patient groups and doctors saying the plan amounts to a “bribe” which focussed on cost-cutting rather than patient needs.
Dr Andrew Green, from the British Medical Association, said many elderly care home residents were on too many different types of medication and should have their pills reviewed, but viewing that primarily as a way to reduce costs was the wrong approach.
“It might well be that the result is cutting costs, but that mustn’t be the aim. The aim must be to get appropriate care to the right patient,” he said.
The cost-cutting scheme is being offered to all GP practices in Oxfordshire for 2017-18.
