Doctors reject abolition of QOF

  GPs in Wales have rejected calls to abandon care quality indicators. The Welsh local medical committees conference last weekend turned down suggestions by some representatives to abolish the QOF (quality and outcomes framework). GPs negotiators in England are to explore, among other possibilities, getting rid of the QOF altogether as part of their next annual contract talks. Leading calls to abandon the QOF in Wales, north Wales GP Alison Hill said: ‘[The QOF] has taken the focus away from what matters to patients in a consultation. It has used up the time and energy of healthcare professionals — something that is now critically reduced. ‘It has been part of the attack on our professionalism, reducing what we do to a series of tick-boxes.’ She added: ‘It’s time to acknowledge that the QOF has had its day and to transfer the funding directly to global sum.’ BMA Cymru Wales GPs committee deputy chair David Bailey said the committee’s negotiators had spent the past four years negotiating ‘chunks of [the QOF] away’ and that any new system needed to extract data from what GPs are already doing and be automatic. He said there would be winners and losers if the QOF were completely abandoned and that Government would want some quality monitoring system.
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news