A DOCTORS’ leader has criticised new plans to award extra cash to GP surgeries for diagnosing dementia patients.

Dr Prit Buttar, chairman of the British Medical Association’s Oxfordshire local medical committee, said the money would not go far enough.

The Government has proposed giving £55 for each patient diagnosed to identify those with the condition so they can receive help.

It is estimated that half of the people living with dementia have not been diagnosed.

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Recorded sufferers in the county rose from 3,566 on March 31, 2013, to 3,936 on the same date this year.

And the number of people in the county aged 85 and over is expected to rise from 14,683 in 2011 to 39,400 by 2035.

Dr Buttar said: “The Government unilaterally came up with this scheme, and did not negotiate with the profession. We were just told to do it.

“But if I were to identify several more patients with dementia, I would need to make available more clinical time – doctors, nurses – to care for them, and that clinical time costs money.

“The entire system is close to collapse under its current workload, so if additional workload is identified, it is entirely reasonable that additional funding is needed.

“It’s not a nice position to be in. We have suffered big funding cuts, and the money is then offered back to us in return for doing whatever is the current political priority.

“It’s inconsistent, and really not the way to provide stability of service.”

Funding cuts mean his Abingdon Surgery in Stert Street will lose £10,000 a year in the next seven years, he said.

He added: “Other practices are even worse hit.”

The scheme has also come under fire from the Patient’s Association, which said it put “a bounty on the head of patients”.

Chief executive Katherine Murphy said: “We know GPs receive incentive payments to find all sorts of conditions, such as high cholesterol, raised blood pressure and diabetes, but this seems a step too far.

“It is putting a bounty on the head of certain patients.

“Good GPs will be diagnosing their dementia patients already. This seems to be rewarding poor GPs.

“There is an issue of people presenting late with dementia to doctors, but this is not the right way to go about tackling that.”

Two-thirds of sufferers will be diagnosed and get support by next year, NHS England has pledged.

Health bosses have said an additional £5m has been made available to help identify those with the condition.

As a requirement however, practices will be required to show improving diagnosis rates.


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