Durham Dales Primary Care Trust has been confirmed as the only PCT in England to qualify for the second stage of the Choose and Book incentive scheme.
Officials from the Department of Health visited the PCT just before Christmas and the PCT heard that it had qualified for the £100,000 payment for referring 50% of patients through the Choose and Book system.
Dr Stewart Findlay, chairman of the PCT’s professional executive committee, said the 12 practices in the PCT would now share the payment with each practice receiving a £1000 flat payment and the rest of the money distributed on a capitation basis.
He told EHI Primary Care: “It’s nice to have done it and to have done it in our way and also to get the reward for it.”
The current referral rate through Choose and Book in the PCT is about 64%, a figure which Dr Findlay said reflected the fact that services such as the rapid access chest clinic and the two week cancer referrals were not available through Choose and Book.
Before Christmas the British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee announced new national incentives for choice and booking. From April GPs will be offered a directed enhanced service worth £1 per patient.