GP commissioners face an ‘overwhelming bureaucratic burden' from the Government's proposed outcomes framework, the BMA has warned.
In its response to a consultation on 120 potential indicators, the BMA said clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have ‘extremely limited' control over many of the outcomes they will be judged on by the NHS Commissioning Board.
The framework will be used by the NHS Commissioning Board to measure the performance of CCGs, with commissioners judged on measures such as the employment of people with mental illness and mortality rates in the elderly.
In its response, the BMA said the measures proposed were too detailed and prescriptive, could promote and embed a target culture, and put CCGs with challenging populations at an unfair disadvantage.
GPC negotiator Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: ‘It really is totally incongruous from a Government that says it wanted to remove targets to replace it with 120 indicators, many of which CCGs have absolutely no control over.'
‘Even worse, the Government's intention to actually penalise CCGs financially for not achieving indicators, such as death rates in under 75s, or patient satisfaction with hospital services.'
