‘Like paying 80% for a meal’: Doctors criticise patient satisfaction-led payments system

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By Daniel Pye

Plans to base how much health providers receive based on patient satisfaction could create “perverse incentives”, according to the government’s own analysis.

Patient Power Payments (PPPs) were outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan (10YHP) as an “innovative new funding flow” in which patients are contacted after care and given a say on whether the full payment for the costs of their care should be released to their provider.

But the Department of Health and Social Care’s impact statement found that while it could help individual patients feel empowered and listened to, “providers may also face perverse incentives to improve the most ‘visible’ aspects of care in order to attract such payments”.

Dr Steve Taylor, the GP co-lead for Doctors’ Association UK, compared the system to going to a restaurant and paying 80% for a meal “based on the fact you didn’t quite like it”.

“This seems to be the premise here, a reduced payment based on poor experience.