£55 for diagnosing dementia.

Good grief! If the shopping basket test and serial sevens are anything to go by then most of the dim-wit celebs who appear on game shows are suffering from dementia

I absolutely agree that it is completely wrong. I am hopping mad; when I think of how hard it is to get an appointment with my GP these days, and how well they are paid, I think it is outraegeous.

teetime according to the Guardian, it's the first time GPs are to be paid for specifically diagnosing a condition. The QOFs in place already relate to management, like putting people on statins if their risk profile falls within certain parameters. There's a subtle difference.

Also according to the Guardian, the doctors who haven't been diagnosing dementia up till now will benefit the most financially. As far as I could work out, this is because the payments will run from now to next March, so that a doctor could suddenly diagnose someone at their next visit, when they should have been diagnosed already, IYSWIM.

Quite right Gaga
93,86,79 etc

BMA seem to have come out against it

I don't remember my mother being asked serial sevens (just as well) but when she was asked the name of the Prime Minister she replied, 'Do you mean our unelected Prime Minister, Gordon Brown?

Why should GPs get paid extra for doing what should be their job if they are concerned about a patient's behaviour or state of mind?

Didn't they at one time get a fee for diagnosing Type 2 diabetes, and suddenly every second person you met seemed to have it?

Quite Ana . But some people do like to have an illness.

Merlot, I remember my MiL replying tartly, 'Why, young man, don't you know?'

I remember my father being given an address to remember at one elderly person check. Not only did he remember it by the end of the other questions (including counting backwards from 20 which he did in Italian!) but told the same doctor the following year what it was! Definitely no £55 there!

I would have liked £55 for every learning disability I diagnosed. This was often after the student had already had 7 yrs of schooling. I thought diagnosis was part of the job- also for GPs! X

"Family doctors in England are to be paid £55 for each patient they diagnose with dementia"

Well - it must be difficult to diagnose when you have dementia - but surely they shouldn't still be practising while demented?

Quite right Gaga 93,86,79 etc

Oh no, I could do it but not in the 5 minutes allocated for a doctor's appointment. There would be a queue of people still in the waiting room (half of them probably anxiously practising 93,86,79,72 - anyone know what comes next?)

feetlebaum

Relief, have just remembered that I live in Wales. There won't be any spare money kicking around to do it over the border here.

would receiving £55 mean they would be any better at diagnosis
agree with the other posters - diagnosis does not necessarily get the necessary help for the patient in a strapped for cash NHS
93, 86, 79, 72, 65, 58, 51, 44, 37, 30....... - but it is not easy and I would prefer the seven times table!

Can do the 7s, but I managed to forget an appointment with the health care assistant this morning. I will have to go and grovel tomorrow.

I have realised that I don't like serial sevens - it is annoying because it is not exact - it does not finish on 7 or 0.

In fact thinking about it is making me anxious

What are serial 7's? I was put in the corner at school for not knowing my 3 times table and I'm not much better now.

See Mollie65

Oh; so it's going downwards from 100. I've never been able to do that so how can I do it now? I can still quote a lot of poetry..does that count?

The doctors aren't very keen on it either. This is from Pulse:

"I genuinely can’t be bothered to list all the things that are wrong with this proposed new service. It’s all too depressing and you could come up with your own, I’m sure.

But if I did, they would include: the highly dubious ethics of the whole thing, the fact that it’s clearly politically/target driven, the reality that it currently takes six months plus from referral to reach a diagnosis, the glaring duplication of pay given there’s already a virtually identical DES...........All of which is beside the point.
We all know that, if money should be poured anywhere near dementia, then it should go into providing adequate memory clinic services and prompt and appropriate social support for patients and carers."

I may have posted this before - sorry can't remember (that's a potential £55 there for my GP!).

When my Dad was in hospital they ran the standard dementia tests on him and one of the questions was "When did the second world war start?" - he thought for a long time and my sister (who was with him) said "I am sure you know this Dad." And he said "I am trying to remember whether it was September 1st or 3rd"!! He was indeed right as there is some dispute about this. I just thought it was one in the eye for the silly test!

I also worked with a dementia consultant and happened to be with him when he was running this test - one of the questions was "How many children does the queen have?" The patient said 4, and I watched the doc mark this down as wrong. Afterwards I pointed out to him that she does have 4 children. "Oh dear" says he, "I have been marking people wrong on that for years!"

My OH GP didn't diagnose his Dementia either. He said he was fine. I knew he was far from fine.

I was so frustrated by it all that I refused to leave the surgery until they'd investigated further. They arranged for a brain scan & he was diagnosed from that.

IMOH GP's shouldn't be paid again for something they are already being paid to do i.e diagnosing their patients!

It would be better to use the money for more help & support after a persons diagnosis.

I could do serial seven's but only slowly as I'd have to take off ten and add three. Is there a time limit to this?
Can someone tell me what the shopping basket test is please, presumably remembering a list of things to buy?

If I was given a certain list of shopping basket items to remember I would probably argue that they were not things I would normally buy.

yogagran I wondered that too (see my post above), if there would be a time limit.
I suppose if the serial sevens started at 105 or 98 that would defeat the object as you could work backwards through the 7X table more quickly. It is still causing me anxiety though, that it finishes on remainder 2.