WARNINGS have been made that contracts forcing GPs to go through private companies before patients can be referred to specialists could be a short term approach to health care.

North Durham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is running a pilot scheme with About Health, which sees the private company receive £10 per referral letter for conditions like cardiology, gynaecology, dermatology and gastroenterology.

The scheme was introduced to reduce the number of unnecessary appointments, which cost £150 each.

An investigation by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found NHS bodies across the country are paying millions of pounds to private companies.

It found two in five CCGs have referral management system in place, with a third of schemes provided by private companies.

In the region, North Durham and North Tyneside have contracts with About Health, while Scarborough and Ryedale and the Vale of York CCGs have an in-house service.

The BMJ says most CCGs were unable to provide evidence showing the scheme saved money, with only 14 per cent able to show the scheme had saved more cash than it had cost to operate.

North Durham CCG, which has been running the scheme since October, says it will not have any figures on whether it has saved money until the end of January.

A spokesperson said: “We are happy with how things are looking at the moment. When we have all the data in we will be able to provide a fully rounded picture of the end to end process.”

Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods has called for the scheme to be halted until guarantees are given that there is no detrimental impact on patient health.

Dr Richard Vautrey, from the British Medical Association’s GPs committee, said: “(CCGs) are leaping at these schemes without any clear evidence of benefit and that they’re just hopeful that it might reduce their costs.

“It is a very, very short term approach to healthcare management. We need to see much more evaluation...and not just keep making the same mistakes year after year.”