A report in yesterday's BMJ reveals health promotion payments do not automatically generate effective health promotion activity, and GPs and practice nurses hold negative attitudes about such schemes.
Tim Coleman, senior lecturer, department of general practice and primary healthcare, Leicester Warwick Medical School and colleagues carried out a survey of 18 GPs and 13 practice nurses from 13 general practices in Leicester.
They were participating in a pilot scheme for health promotion payment, where practices were paid for each patient identified who had smoked during the past 12 months but was not doing so now and had stopped for at least three months.
They found the practitioners claiming the most payments had altered their methods of recording smoking status rather than increased the frequency with which they advised patients to stop smoking.
