GPs favour local contracts over Quality and Outcomes Framework

The QOF is an incentive programme that rewards practices for achievement in areas like treating chronic disease and patient experience.
    
Somerset GPs have been granted permission to leave the QOF and are in the process of negotiating a deal with the LMC and CCG. 46 per cent of 413 GPs in the Pulse survey said they would 'in principle' be inclined to follow Somerset's example as the QOF scheme was 'no longer about patient care' and clashed with the current emphasis on local budgets. 17 per cent said they would not consider leaving the scheme, and 37 per cent said they were undecided pending local proposals being made.
    
The General Practitioners Committee (GPC) has criticised locally negotiated deals as undermining the national scheme. GPC chair Dr Chaan Nagpaul said: "We need to be very careful, the last thing we need is an unintended consequence, of GPs doing the same work, for less resources, and then having to work hard to earn that resource back.
    
"It’s the nature of local negotiations that GPs would work to different arrangements, of varying levels of workload. That is always a risk of the negotiations, and I think we need to be very careful in how we look at them.
    
"Clearly there is value in elements of local schemes, in every area, resourced by CCGs or the area team, on top of a national contract."

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