NHS Health authorities have announced a plan to reward hospitals for low death and infection rates and few readmissions.
NHS North West chief executive Mike Farrar said payments needed to have a link to quality of care. Initially, payments will be made for treatments for heart failure, pneumonia, heart bypass grafts, and hip and knee replacements.
NHS North West – covering Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Cumbria and Lancashire – is piloting the reward scheme with ?1.5m pot of money. Health trusts which rank in the top 10 or 20% will get a share of the cash.
A similar method has been tried out successfully in United States.