We would like to bring to your attention some recent updates to the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), Investment and Impact Fund (IIF), and Vaccination & Immunization (V&I) Enhanced Services.
Vaccination & Immunisation (V&I) Enhanced Service Reports
We would like to remind practices that the Ardens national contract reports, including the V&I Enhanced Service reports, are not designed to replace or replicate the CQRS GPES extraction and should be used for indicative purposes only.
If GP practices believe they have been paid incorrectly for the number of vaccinations they have given, they may make a manual adjustment claim if they provide sufficient evidence via CQRS. This claim will need to be approved by the GP Practice’s own ICB. Please note that a screenshot of the Ardens report count may not be sufficient evidence for claims. Possible reasons for claiming include:
- Clerical errors if the wrong data has been recorded
- Activity that was entered after the GPES extraction date but was backdated
- Activity delivered and recorded at a PCN hub instead of a practice.
The recent changes to the Ardens SystmOne V&I Enhanced Service reports were made to avoid GP practices accidentally overclaiming payments. For further information, please see this support article.
Medications not being recognised in various QOF indicators
The NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (DM+D) is a database that maps medicines to SNOMED codes. It is updated regularly, and last month a large number of medicines were mapped to new SNOMED codes. The code clusters have not yet been updated with these new SNOMED codes and so patients who are correctly prescribed medication and were achieving QOF indicators are now flagged as no longer achieving these indicators. The following QOF indicators are affected but this may affect other areas too:
AF008, CHD005, CHOL001, DM006, DM022, DM023, HF003, HF006, STIA007
We understand that NHSE is updating the code clusters with the new SNOMED codes which will hopefully fix this problem and restore pre-existing QOF achievement. No action is required from GP practices at this time.
COPD014 - Pulmonary Rehabilitation referrals
In December the "Pulmonary rehabilitation offered" code was removed from the "PULREHABOFF_COD" code cluster, This means that patients who were coded as "Pulmonary rehabilitation offered" will no longer achieve COPD014. A new report for this has been added on Ardens SystmOne and can be found under Clinical Reporting > Contracts | 2023 24 | QOF | Data Quality > COPD014 - ?Review as pulmonary rehab offered and not referred or declined
The "Pulmonary rehabilitation declined" code cluster was previously removed from the business rules but is being added back in by NHSE. This code has therefore been added back onto the Ardens SystmOne templates for it to be used when appropriate.
Learning Disability (LD) Register
In December the Learning Disability Register "LD_COD" code cluster was updated. GP practices may have noticed that some patients without LD have appeared on their QOF LD Register. This may impact IIF achievement for relevant LD indicators (HI003), and also other areas that use this register.
NHSE has now issued a further update of this code cluster that should improve the accuracy of the LD register once it has been implemented by clinical system suppliers. Ardens have added some reports for this that can be found under Clinical Reporting > Contracts | 2023 24 | QOF | Data Quality > LD004
The Ardens Manager QOF dashboard is free for all Ardens subscribers and will provide a graphical representation of QOF performance.
Please contact our support team via support-systmone@ardens.org.uk should you have any questions.
If you are not using Ardens and wish to use these resources, please request a no-obligation 3-month free trial.