The GP incentive scheme target for 25% of referrals to be made through Choose and Book in June appears to be “impossible to achieve” according to London GP representatives who are lobbying for a review of the deadline.
The London-wide Local Medical Committee has written to Kevin Jarrold, regional implementation director for the London cluster to outline its concerns.
The letter says: “London-wide LMCs would like to express grave concern, on behalf of all our members and constituents, regarding the achievability of the aspiration aspect of this new Directed Enhanced Service for general practice (DES)”
GPs who agreed to sign up for the DES were awarded a payment of 24p per patient but this aspiration payment will be reclaimed by PCTs unless at least 25% of all bookings in June are done via Choose and Book.
The LMC letter says: “As we are now approaching the end of May, this target appears impossible to achieve for London PCTs. We feel it is vital that this information is fed back to the National Programme and the Department of Health for their urgent consideration.”
Dr Paul Cundy, chairman of the British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee IT sub-committee and a GP in Wimbledon, said he fully supported the LMC.
He told EHI Primary Care: “If the experiences in the rest of London are anything like the problems I have encountered there is no chance the target will be met. I have tried nine times to use Choose and Book and only managed to make two appointments for patients. It’s so confusing – there were hundreds of ENT clinics and when I eventually did make appointments I had to tell the patients I had no idea if it was the right clinic for them.”
Dr Cundy described the Choose and Book training received by his practice as “atrocious” and said it was ridiculous that they had received training only two weeks before the target month.
He added: “I think the sensible way to approach this would be to flexible about which month is the target month for reporting. We do want to encourage people to use Choose and Book but the process has to work.”
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