Role of incentive schemes in general practice: Primary Care Network response
Since 2004, incentive schemes based on clinical indicators have been a part of practice income for over 20 years. However, with the changing healthcare landscape and increasing pressures, it is important to ensure that any incentive schemes in primary care continue to be in the best interests of patients.
The Department of Health and Social Care opened a public consultation for 12 weeks, which closed in March. The consultation invited stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, patient groups, and the wider public, to share their views and insights on the role of incentive programmes in general practice.
Key aspirations are outlined in a summary of our response captured below.
How we formed our response
We consulted with members of our network, including clinical and non-clinical leaders of Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and GP Federations as well as Directors of Primary Care, to formulate our response to the consultation. We consulted with them on four topics, namely:
- Preventative care and health inequalities
- Incentives at neighbourhood, place and system
- PCN quality improvement and quality of care
- Multimorbidity, access and continuity of care
Throughout January and February we engaged with our members, which included four meetings with over 150 members. We compiled their feedback and used it to formulate our response to each question in the consultation. In addition, we also engaged with policy leads across other NHS Confederation networks.
