Doctors will be paid extra simply for telling their patients to go on a diet, under radical NHS plans.
From next year, GPs will receive a payment for every obese patient they advise to lose weight - on top of money for keeping lists of those who weigh too much.
The plans form part of a desperate bid to tackle soaring rates of obesity in Britain, with two out of three adults now classed as overweight or obese.
Doctors will be instructed to be more pro-active in raising the topic of weight loss in their consultations, while new NHS guidance will say health workers and local authorities should do more to stop children and adults becoming overweight.
Under a national payment scheme for all family doctors, they will be able to boost their income if they record giving ââ¬Åweight management adviceââ¬Â to obese patients, or offer them a free place on a diet club, which the NHS would pay for.
Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum said he was horrified that doctors would be able to get richer simply from telling patients to go on a diet.
He said: ââ¬ÅI am in favour of GPs referring more patients to weight management schemes, like Weight Watchers and Slimming World, where there is good evidence they work, as there increasingly is. But I think itââ¬â¢s appalling that GPs need to be paid extra to do this - and even worse that they can get the same reward just from telling a patient to lose some weight.ââ¬Â
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8527835/GPs-will-be-paid-extra-to-tell-patients-they-are-fat.html
From next year, GPs will receive a payment for every obese patient they advise to lose weight - on top of money for keeping lists of those who weigh too much.
The plans form part of a desperate bid to tackle soaring rates of obesity in Britain, with two out of three adults now classed as overweight or obese.
Doctors will be instructed to be more pro-active in raising the topic of weight loss in their consultations, while new NHS guidance will say health workers and local authorities should do more to stop children and adults becoming overweight.
Under a national payment scheme for all family doctors, they will be able to boost their income if they record giving ââ¬Åweight management adviceââ¬Â to obese patients, or offer them a free place on a diet club, which the NHS would pay for.
Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum said he was horrified that doctors would be able to get richer simply from telling patients to go on a diet.
He said: ââ¬ÅI am in favour of GPs referring more patients to weight management schemes, like Weight Watchers and Slimming World, where there is good evidence they work, as there increasingly is. But I think itââ¬â¢s appalling that GPs need to be paid extra to do this - and even worse that they can get the same reward just from telling a patient to lose some weight.ââ¬Â
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8527835/GPs-will-be-paid-extra-to-tell-patients-they-are-fat.html
