A PAYMENT that used to be made to GPs to record basic information about patients' alcohol intake could be reinstated to address the "extremely low" identification of problem drinkers in Croydon.
Although an estimated 18 per cent (51,862) of adults living in the borough are thought to drink at increasing or higher risk levels, only one per cent (3,727) of the GP registered population is recorded as having issues with alcohol.
Health officials believe many GPs have stopped screening their patients – which health watchdog NICE says should be routine – because an incentive for doing so was stopped last March.
It meant GPs were paid £2.38 for each new patient over the age of 16 who filled out a questionnaire which takes less than five minutes to complete. Croydon Council, now responsible for commissioning alcohol response services, is considering reintroducing the payments next year.
Dr Mike Robinson, director of public health, told the Advertiser: "When we recommission we will be looking at whether we can incentivise family doctors to record more accurate data."
When asked whether GPs needed to be paid extra money to encourage patients to fill out what a senior family doctor described this week as a "simple" questionnaire, Dr Robinson said: "It depends who you ask.
"Obviously, we expect our family doctors to consider alcohol whenever there's an appropriate problem. We would expect it to be part of the high-quality care that any doctor should deliver.
"You could say it is reasonable for GPs to receive a small extra payment for systematically recording and making sure that information is properly entered into a computer system."
The "extremely low" identification of people with alcohol issues in primary care was referenced in an urgent health report into the borough's "complex" problems with booze.
The joint strategy needs assessment, due to be approved by health bosses later this month, said: "This may indicate that primary care practitioners are not routinely screening or inquiring about alcohol consumption, which could enable identification of potential problems at an early stage."
Speaking at last week's Croydon Commissioning Group (CCG) board meeting chairman Dr Tony Brzezicki, a partner at Queenhill Medical Practice in Selsdon, acknowledged the scrapping of the incentive has had an impact on screening.
He said: "There has been a change in our contract so that a few years ago, when patients registered with a practice we were supposed to do a simple form and, if people scored highly, we were to offer advice or referral.
"That has been taken out now and there is no recommended way of recording alcohol consumption and no requirement for us to do it systematically.
"It's actually quite straightforward to record but we haven't done it routinely since the contract changed.
"Quite a lot of practices still continue, but it's no longer what is called a nationally-enhanced service.
"There doesn't seem to be any focus on the new arrangements going forward to look at or target alcohol, which I think is a gap in prevention work that we could undertake in primary care."
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