Practices in parts of England have been paid incentives for reducing referrals for scans and cardiac testing, it has been claimed.

An investigation into referral incentive schemes found four clinical commissioning groups that had included scans and tests.

The Daily Mail set out to identify areas that introduced referral incentive schemes – where practices are paid bonuses for reducing or reviewing referrals.

This identified 22 areas using the incentive schemes – out of 182 responding to a Freedom of Information request.

Out of these two, Cumbria and Greater Huddersfield, include referrals for cardiology in their schemes with the aim of reducing testing and surgery, the paper reports.

North Hampshire included tests for suspected cancer last year while North East Lincolnshire continues to include these tests, the paper reports.

A spokesperson for North East Lincolnshire said that referrals for suspected had cancer had increased after the introduction of the scheme.

Royal College of GPs chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said: “GPs should always be able to act in the best interests of patients in front of them – and we must not be put in a position where we are asked to prioritise cost over the health and wellbeing of our patients.

“Suggesting that we should behave otherwise is not only an offensive slur on our professionalism, but undermines the high levels of trust that exist between GPs and our patients.”

An NHS England spokesman said: “There are big variations in the extent to which different GP practices are able to provide services for their own patients at the local surgery without having to send patients to hospital, so it is often right to support these more convenient alternatives using the funding then not needed for unnecessary hospital outpatient visits.”