GPs have been paid bonuses to put elderly patients on controversial ‘death lists’ in an attempt to save the NHS money by cutting the number of people who die in hospital.
They have been given £50 a time to draw up ‘end-of-life advanced care plans’ for patients they predict will pass away within a year.
The payments are designed to encourage doctors to start talking about death with elderly and seriously ill patients and to keep a record of where, ideally, they would like to die.
Those behind the ‘yellow folder’ scheme – so named as that is where the care plan forms are kept – insist its main aim is to give patients a better death.
But critics say it was designed to save money and could result in people being denied treatment or help. According to documents seen by The Mail on Sunday, a ‘key objective’ of the project, trialled in eastern England, has been ‘to shift the place of death’ away from hospitals so ‘reducing . . . healthcare costs’.
Every death that takes place outside of hospital saves the NHS almost £1,000, official calculations show. Average hospital deaths in England costs the NHS £3,065 but those elsewhere cost only £2,107.
Our latest report comes three months after The Mail on Sunday revealed ambulance crews can refuse to take extremely ill people to hospital if they have stated on their care plan they want to die at home.
Dr Gillian Craig, a retired geriatrician, questioned why GPs were being offered an extra payment for having a difficult conversation.
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