The number of patients with dementia has risen by 19% after GPs were given £55 for each diagnosis made.
Between October 2014 and March 2015, GPs were awarded cash for every patient they diagnosed with dementia.
The money was also given if the GP updated their records when one of their patients was diagnosed with dementia in hospital.
Some NHS authorities offered ‘bribes’ of up to £200 for each new diagnosis, a system described by one expert as “an ethical travesty”.
During the six month scheme, the number of patients diagnosed with dementia rose by one fifth from 336,445 to 400,707.
When the payments stopped at the end of March 2015, the rate of diagnoses slowed down significantly.
One GP in Surrey said the scheme “crosses a line that has not been crossed before – the direct payment on the basis of making a diagnosis, or ‘cash for diagnoses’”.
“A litany of failures”
The news comes as a leading charity warns of “shocking” and “unacceptable” standards of dementia care, with thousands being discharged from hospital during the night.
Information obtained from 68 NHS Trusts in England showed that in 2014/15, nearly 5,000 dementia patients were discharged from hospital between 11pm and 6am. Many were left to make their own way home.
A report by the Alzheimer’s Society has warned of variations in the quality of dementia care across the country, with some patients subject to “a litany of failures”.
The research, which involved 500 dementia patients, found incidents of people being treated with excessive force, restrained with handcuffs, left to lie in soiled sheets, and not being given help to drink or eat.
Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “In the worst cases, hospital care for people with dementia is like Russian roulette.”
Substandard hospital care
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