The development of prescribing incentive schemes in primary care: a longitudinal survey.
Primary Care Groups and Trusts in England (Primary Care Organisations, or PCOs) are required to operate a prescribing incentive scheme. Little is known about their development since their inception in 1999. We surveyed incentive schemes in London and the South-East NHS Regions in the two consecutive years since 1999. Most of the changes to the incentives and prescribing indicators favoured improvements in prescribing quality, rather than cost control. Quality improvements may be hampered in those PCOs offering financial rewards to underspent general practices that fail to achieve any prescribing quality targets.
Ashworth
Mark
M
Guy's King's & St Thomas' Department of General Practice and Primary Care, King's College London, 5, Lambeth Walk, London SE11 6SP. mark.ashworth@gp-G85053.nhs.uk
Lea
Robert
R
Gray
Heather
H
Gravelle
Hugh
H
Majeed
Azeem
A
D003363:Cost Control; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000191:economics*; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D004739:England; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive