Results of similar study in Mersey were different

EDITOR,—In their study into the effects of fundholding on prescribing Sarah Stewart-Brown and colleagues found that although fundholders initially contained prescribing costs more effectively than non-fundholders, this effect was not maintained and was even reversed.1

Our studies of prescribing in fundholding practices show that similar patterns of cost containment occurred in the first year of fundholding in the first three waves2 but that the effect was not maintained.3 Stewart-Brown and colleagues suggest several possible explanations: these include deliberate inflation of prescribing costs in …