By Lilian Anekwe
QOF targets on smoking cessation should be ditched in favour of indicators for prescribing smoking cessation drugs, a leading GP researcher has said.
Indicators that reward GPs for prescribing nicotine replacement therapy to smokers would be 'more logical', an analysis of evidence concluded.
The study - by Dr Tim Coleman, a researcher at the University of Nottingham and a GP in the city - suggested that after the QOF was introduced, the likelihood of a patient having their smoking status recorded almost doubled and the likelihood of receiving smoking cessation advice tripled.
But there was no consistent change in prescriptions of smoking cessation drugs and no acceleration in prescriptions in any cohort.
A GP researcher has called for QOF targets on smoking cessation to be ditched in favour of indicators for prescribing smoking cessation drugs A GP researcher has called for QOF targets on smoking cessation to be ditched in favour of indicators for prescribing smoking cessation drugs
