GPs have spoken out against a new QOF indicator that requires assessments, evaluations and action plans to ‘improve wellbeing’.
QOF guidance for 2023/24 says practices should review factors that affect wellbeing, Pulse reported.
Writing in the BMJ on Tuesday 4 April, Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP and academic, warned: “This plan has a flavour of ‘the flogging will continue until morale improves’. Who, precisely, will have to come up with the assessments, evaluations, and action plans, other than the very people who are hardest pressed?”
Dozens of GPs took to Twitter to point out the irony of a bureaucratic approach to burnout.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “In years to come, I will be citing this latest QOF indicator as the reason that we had such a huge spike in new members joining NASGP to work as locums throughout 2023.
“Many GP locums will recognise the need for the recommendations in this guidance, having left salaried and partnership posts because of toxic work environments, or from supporting practices who’ve failed to retain GPs. They will also all be familiar with its root cause – workload.
“Trying to solve this by increasing bureaucracy and workload will only serve to exacerbate the problem.”
