It has been announced and agreed…

February 8, 2017

On the 7 February 2017, the NHS Employers and the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee (GPC) agreed on a number of changes to Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) effective from 1 April 2017. These changes apply in England only.

Here we go again

But not much has actually changed…

No changes to indicators
No changes to thresholds
An adjustment to the value of a QOF point will take place, but this has not yet been published

NHS employers announced that no indicators have been retired for this year, but as before you should still undertake work as clinically appropriate in relation to those indicators that are no longer in QOF.

Indicators no longer in QOF 2017/18 – another Synonym (INLIQ)

From 1 April 2017, it is a contractual requirement for practices to facilitate data collection on these indicators. The full list is published below or can be found below on the NHS employer’s website.

NHS Employers say the full guidance will be available for download soon, so keep an eye open for the NHS employers website details below.

A summary of the changes can be found on the link below or on the NHS Employers website.

OUTCOME OF 2017/18 GMS CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS

NHS England have published a 9-page letter detailing the changes in the GP contract for 2017/18.

The headings in the letter

When you read through the letter you will start to realise that it involves additional or change in work for probably every team in general practice. I have put these in bold under some of the headings.

Contract Uplift and Expenses

Carr-Hill formula

QOF

Directed Enhanced services (DESs)

GPs, HCAs and Nurses

Identification and management of patients with frailty

GPs and coding clerks

National diabetes audit (NDA)

Data Clerk

NHS Digital Workforce Census

Data Officer

Data collection