High care standards mean GPs are worth their weight in gold

According to the UK Department of Health, the first results from a scheme, called the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), show that by performing beyond expectation, family doctors earned their surgeries thousands of pounds in bonuses.

The tables in the framework enables patients to check the performance of their GPs and assess their work in several areas.

According to the first tables to assess quality of care, the average GP practice scored 91 per cent of the points available in an incentive scheme to improve their pay and raise standards for patients.

Under the new GP contracts, practices get a basic rate topped by bonus points in areas such as providing early flu injections for heart disease patients or ensuring flexible appointments.

The contracts, which came into force last year, represent a revolution in primary care by paying GPs for results rather than for the number of patients they have.

The Health department had estimated that the 8,486 practices in the scheme would score an average 730 points out of a possible 1,050, but in fact they achieved 959, a £74,229 bonus for each surgery.

That gave the average partner in a GP practice £100,000 a year.

Ministers and doctors, for once in agreement, say the new "payment by results" contracts, which took years to negotiate, had been successful and was improving quality as well as attracting more staff to primary care.

Health minister, Lord Warner, has congratulated GPs, and says the high scores show the new contract is proving successful in giving practices a real incentive to improve the quality of care for NHS patients and to provide a wide range of services locally.

The former system meant that GPs were paid by the number of patients they had rather than for the range and quality of care they offered.

Now with QOF, each incentive point is worth an extra £77.50 to the practice, and the bonus scheme accounts for 20 per cent of their income.

It is possible for surgeries to earn an extra 100 points if they can show high levels of patient satisfaction, and 184 points for electronic record-keeping.