Should GPs be given a financial incentive to diagnose dementia?

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive, Alzheimer's Society

Katherine Murphy, chief executive, Patients Association

YES

NHS England has launched a new initiative where it will pay GPs £55 for each time they diagnose a person with dementia. The scheme has attracted both criticism and support.

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive at Alzheimer’s Society, believes the end justifies the means and if financial incentives improve dementia diagnosis rates then they should be used. He called it “shocking that the Patients Association seems to be acting against the interests of some of our most vulnerable people”. He said: “For no other disease would we tolerate only half the people getting a diagnosis. There is a long tradition of supporting GP practices to tackle neglected areas. People are worried about their memory and their carers deserve that support.”

NHS England insists the scheme is “not just payment for diagnosis” and GP practices would have to form a detailed plan and show improving diagnosis rates.

Dr Martin McShane, national director for long term conditions at NHS England, said: “Dementia can be devastating both for individuals and their families. We know that more needs to be done across the health service to ensure that people living with dementia are identified so that they can get the tailored care and support they need.

“This additional investment is part of a larger range of measures to support GPs in their work tackling dementia.”

NO

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, is dead against the scheme calling it “a step too far” that could lead to a “bounty on the head” of certain patients. She said that good GPs are diagnosing their dementia patients already and that the new scheme seems to be rewarding poor GPs.

Timothy James, senior lecturer in Medical Law and Ethics at Birmingham City University raised the question of why GPs should need a financial incentive to diagnose dementia, saying: “The ethical point is surely that doctors should diagnose illness in order to benefit their patients, not themselves. “So the follow-up question must be: does the Government think that GPs are unable to diagnose dementia through inadequate diagnostic skills, or unwilling to diagnose it because it will cost them something – money out of their budgets, or an increased workload? If it’s the former, training should be the answer; if the latter, ethics come in.”

For more information on the issue go to our news story www.carehome.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/1565617/paying-gps-diagnosing-dementia