Text from surgery asking if I smoke

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So I received a text from NHS-NoReply asking me to reply (?) with SMOKE, EX, or NEVER. As apparently my surgery want to update their records.

They already know my status as I told them fourteen weeks ago. It's not like I haven't been asked for years and years.

AIBU at the question? I haven't replied.

So as not to drip feed:
I'm a social smoker, never in the house or car.
Same surgery has a big black mark for me, for not inviting dd for her first jabs, I realised at 11 weeks she'd had none. But she had had croup. Grr.

Healthcare is about humans not tick boxes.

Yes, but that question, which practices are incentivised for asking, then contributes to statistical information which creates local health profiles, which is then used to inform needs-based commissioning by Public Health of (for example) smoking cessation programmes. So it's not 'just' for QOF points, it has a very practical purpose too.

The 'yes but' was re Southwest's comment btw!

So GPs signed a contract that linked their remuneration to collecting data on patients for non health monitoring purposes?

wow southwest, you sound charming, I assume you dont use any services that the GP's are funding from their QOF money. That'll be the nurse that does your smear, kids jabs, dressings, pill checks etc etc. If you dont want a centrally funded GP service perhaps you could find a private GP that would suit you better?

emmeline, QOF is all "supposedly" evidence based for health benefits eg care for diabetics/cardiac patients etc, and has certainly shown improved outcomes. It is just the beaurocracy and admin associated with it has become out of control.

I'm sure the dr wouldn't be asking this question unless it was for a reason. They seem pretty busy to me, so I'm sure they've got better things to do than ask questions.

So I'd assume my answer would be quite helpful to them.

Surely they tell me what my blood pressure is, not the other way around? How am I meant to know this?

macdoodle thanks for responding. Do you mean that if I became a cardiac or diabetes patient, my history of responses would be useful to my care? Or that this is how they find out if I have diabetes, cardiac problems etc.? So the extra money is performance related to them showing they are monitoring effectively?

I got the impression from other responses that the QoF responses were about filling in a formula to see how much money the practice got based on the risk inherent in their patient mix.

This thread is very interesting, I had been ignoring my text but thanks to the posts from HCP I've pinged off a reply. It's good to get some perspective from the other side of things!

Thats a small part of QOF, the majority of it is about managing chronic diseases, like diabetes, heart problems, dementia, depression - The theory behind it is great, that is is properly monitored and managed, but there is ever increasing beurocratic burden that makes it frankly ridiculous. The other part is about preventative medicine, so smoking, BP, smears etc in younger people, so yes helpful to try and prevent chronic diseases occuring and managing them proactively early on. It is supposedly all evidence based and ties in with NICE, but some of them have become jokes (asking 90yr old diabetic men if they have an erection for one!)/

Thanks macdoodle it is interesting to find out how this really works. Doesn't make me inclined to respond to the texts, but quells the outrage I was beginning to feel reading some of the responses on here!

Well I've certainly learned something. I'll be replying now. My aibu is really aimed at the method of delivery, it seems so impersonal.

Thanks everyone for the perspectives!

I'm feeling left out. My surgery hasn't been in touch to ask me these questions.

I told my GP I'm not prepared to answer as they only want to update their system to get the QOF points.

That's your pregorative. When you can't get an appointment because their funding has been cut and they've had to make one of the doctors redundant, I assume you won't be complaining?

Incidentally, it's not the GP that administer vaccinations - the letter should have come from your PCT or similar, not the GP surgery (IIRC).

Administer = administrate.

I hate NHS Noreply. I opted out at both of my surgeries yet they both put me onto the system. I didn't even give the second surgery my mobile number, they took it from my last surgeries records!

Op you're kidding yourself.

There's no need for a 'sometimes' button. Non smokers don't smoke...period.

If you're not in that category, there's only one other choice left.

I'd like to say thank yoo to the HCPs on this thread too, for giving their perspective. Fwiw, I always reply when I get these text messages, but it's good to know that the information is actually worth something to someone, and could be the difference between someone keeping their job or being made redundant!

"I told my GP I'm not prepared to answer as they only want to update their system to get the QOF points."
Doesn't this strike you as cutting your nose off to spite your face somewhat? You're penalising your GP's surgery for a system/procedure that they didn't formulate, and probably didn't even want! You are contributing to your surgery possibly having to remove services that you may well need, if not now, then in the future.

*you, not yoo

Trouble is, it's all very well sympathising with the GPs having to ask these questions - I appreciate the pressure they're under - but they're not enjoying doing it, don't see it as useful and don't appreciate the system being inflicted from above. If they can give back stats for patients declining to play the game or give info on the grounds that it's silly they stand some chance of those at the top inflicting these mad systems realising they need to do it differently. I work with Speech Therapists begging for people to complain to those above them and not give the impression the system works because they're sorry for the Speech Therapists themselves. That way nothing changes.

If my GP asks me my blood pressure I shall have to point out to them in detail that a) I have a diagnosed condition which involves severe low blood pressure b) no one ever bothers to check on this when I come to the surgery and hasn't in several years, I monitor this myself because no one other than the hospital does c) I get no help, support or information from them on managing this condition at all and have given up asking. So no, for that reason too I'm not helping them tick boxes.

After this year a lot of QOF targets are being removed, presumably as the government have realised that some of them are pointless box-ticking exercises that are of doubtful benefit, and simply distract the HCPs from addressing the problems patients care about.

WRT smoking - evidence has apparently shown that being told that smoking is bad for them and it would be good to stop actually increases the chances of smokers quitting. It seems hard to believe, because lets face it everyone already knows its bad for them, you wouldn't think that being told, yet again, would make a difference. But according to statistics it does. Hence the addition of smoking status and cessation advice in QOF. And that isn't going away next year.

GP surgeries are paid to achieve targets, and documenting the smoking status (and advising accordingly) in a certain percentage of the practice population is one of them. Like it or not, that's the way it is. If you want your GP surgery to have less money, then don't tell them anything. But you will continue to be asked every year, so it might be easier just to answer the question and then forget about it!

And there is an option for coding "occasional smoker" or "social smoker" and various others, so if the text message doesn't permit that, you can always ring the surgery and tell them, then the data can be added accurately.

Never knew about this QOF. All this time I just thought the nurse didn't believe me because I always get a low reading on the breath thingy

Just don't answer.