On 6 March NHS England published a letter to all GP practices and primary care network (PCN) clinical directors in England setting out the changes that will take place to the GP Contract in 2023/24, setting out the requirements of general practice and PCNs with the goal of improving patient experience and satisfaction.
The changes highlighted in the letter include:
Access
- Ensuring patients should be offered an assessment of need or signposted to an appropriate service at first contact with the practice.
- Make it easier for patients to access their healthcare information online.
- Require all practices once their current telephony contracts expire to procure their telephony solutions from a recommended supplier framework.
Investment and impact fund (IIF) and quality and outcomes framework (QOF)
- Reduction in the number of IIF indicators from 36 to five
- Remaining IIF funding to be focussed on improving patient experience of contacting their practice and receiving a response with an assessment and/or being seen within an appropriate period.
- Development of access improvement plans
- 25% reduction in the number of QOF indicators
- QOF quality improvement (QI) modules to focus on workforce wellbeing and optimising demand and capacity in general practice
Additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS)
- Addition of advanced clinical practitioner nurses to the roles eligible for reimbursement as advanced practitioners
- Addition of apprentice physician associates
- Increasing the cap on advanced practitioners to three per PCN
- Removal of caps on mental health practitioners
Immunisations and vaccinations
- Removal of the vaccination and immunisations repayment mechanism for practice performance below 80%
- Changes to childhood vaccination and immunisation thresholds
- No additional requirements to PCN service specification in 2023/24
Other highlights:
- Further details are expected shortly on the delivery plan for recovering access to primary care (to include further support for practice and PCNs on improving patient experience and satisfaction)
- The profession and patient representative groups are to be consulted on the QOF and its future form.
Further details on the changes including a revised Network directed enhanced service (DES) specification will be published shortly.
Last Updated on 9 March 2023