Abstract The recent government White Paper 'Working for Patients' emphasised the use of
financial incentives as a means of altering the behaviour of general practitioners (GPs) in the
UK This paper examines the impact of financial incentives on GPs' behaviour with respect to
maternity care and cervical cytology. Changes in per-item fees over the period 1966–1989
appear to have had little effect on the numbers of treatments; rather service provision was
related to patient demand and the availability of GPs. However, target payments for cervical …