Alan Johnson took part in a live web chat last week in which he responded to a question posted by GP about whether GPs would be incentivised for providing extra stroke services such as prescribing statins and smoking cessation.
Mr Johnson replied: ‘The answer is yes, GPs will be incentivised to concentrate on prevention and early diagnosis.
‘The introduction of the quality framework dimension of GP pay in 2006 has had a real beneficial effect because for the first time GPs are incentivised and rewarded for these preventative measures.
‘This is a crucial part of the Stroke Strategy but also essential to so many other illnesses and in our objective of ensuring that we do not have a national sickness service but a genuine health service where prevention is as important as cure.’
However, a DoH spokesman said: ‘There are already plenty of inclusions in the quality framework for a wide range of vascular interventions, including stroke.’
Currently, GPs can score up to five quality points for lowering cholesterol to 5mmol/l in patients who have had a stroke or TIA.
sanjay.tanday@haymarket.com
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