A SCHEME in Britain which pays bonuses to GPs for not referring patients to hospital was branded "absolutely ridiculous" by a patient group yesterday.
The policy, which was introduced by Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT), will see average-sized doctors' practices earning up to £20,000 (€25,725) for reviewing and reducing their referral rate.
If doctors hit their targets then the PCT will be left with a bill of £1.2 million. But they believe the expense is justified because the increasing amount of patients being sent to hospital is estimated to cost £6 million.
Surgeries with 10,000 patients will receive £10,000 to look at their referral procedures, and up to £10,000 more for reducing their rates.
Sue Woollacott, chairwoman of the Patient Support Group at Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, said: "To delay patients, who are often elderly, who need good orthopaedic care, and to delay them from getting necessary care can often complicate the procedures that they then eventually have to have."
A spokeswoman for Oxfordshire PCT said: "We have got significantly increasing rates of referral into secondary care providers. We're not sure why.
"We're asking them to look at the referrals they're making. That will take clinical time to do that. We're offering to pay for that time."