ABSTRACT
The Royal College of General Practitioners (GP) has set out the values that define the GP - high-quality personal care, continuity of care and a commitment to individual patients - that makes being a GP a good profession rather than just a job. The first evidence that the QOF has narrowed health inequalities by cutting admissions and deaths from heart disease, especially in deprived areas, has come from a new study. The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) penalises small practices. The QOF DM15 indicator, which rewards for the percentage of diabetic patients with proteinuria or albuminuria who are treated with either an ACE inhibitor or an ARB, was cost-effective in only 36% of practices. Some GPs argue that National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has got things wrong in the past and might stray from the initial aim and objective of the QOF, which was to reward practices for providing high-quality care.
