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Pulse incentives investigation dominates headlines, locum to earn £500k and why tall people are at greater risk of cancer

Pulse’s revelation that GPs are being offered ‘ethically questionable’ incentives to reduce referrals to urgent treatments such as cancer is topping the news agenda this morning.

The story has made it onto the front pages of the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the i, the Guardian and is also featured in the Sun, the Times and on the BBC.

The scoop has also inspired analysis across the media, with for example the Telegraph commenting that ‘the revelation that some GPs are now being offered financial rewards to keep the number of hospital referrals down is extremely troubling’.

The paper said that although ’doubtless doctors will always do their best to make referral decisions on medical grounds’,  ’these rewards schemes will also jeopardise trust in GPs’.

The highest paid locum doctor is to earn nearly half a million pounds this year, writes the Times. The shift-working hospital doctor was the highest paid as figures revealed agency spending to plug gaps in the NHS workforce reached £1bn.

Taller people face a greater risk of cancer, reports the Daily Express. A 50-year study published today claimed the risk of cancer rises by 18% and 11% per four inches in height for men an women respectively, writes the paper.

Researchers said the reason is because cancer stems from a mutation in a single cell, and taller people have more cells.


          

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