CQC Registration Reminder

We would like to remind NHS GP practices that they do not yet need to comply with Care Quality Commission standards. The registration window for CQC will open from October 2011 and NHS GP practices will need to be registered from 1 April 2012. Monitoring of compliance with the CQC standards will not commence until 1 April 2012. However, it is worth noting that PCTMS practices should be registered with CQC because PCTs needed to be registered from 1 April 2010. Also organisations that provide some NHS primary medical services but whose main purpose is to provide other services, such as private healthcare, social care or NHS acute services need to have been registered for all of their services from 1 October 2010.

The GPC in tend to publish ‘CQC for GPs’ guidance in the first quarter of 2011. This will explain registration and provide advice on compliance with the CQC standards with the aim of reducing the burden and bureaucracy for practices.

NHS Appraisal Toolkit Update

As you are aware, the DH contract for the provision of the NHS Appraisal Toolkit expired at the end of this October . The DH have written this letter to PCTs & SHAs regarding arrangements following the expiry of the contract. For your ease the MS Word version of the appraisal forms referred to in the letter are here. Locally, you should have received an email (which was sent out to all GPs) a little while ago, advising you that a return to a ‘manual’ system was anticipated. GPs should use an electronic template, not unlike the current Toolkit template, which can be emailed between appraisers/PCT appraisal team, with supporting information being presented ‘manually’ to appraisers. There has been discussion at a regional level over the adoption of a uniform template for appraisal, which Dr Lone has seen and commented on.

White Paper, BMA Resources and GPC Guidance

The BMA has developed a number of resources available to members to support further engagement on NHS White Paper proposals. This introductory letter from Hamish Meldrum contains all the links to access the resources. The series of guidance notes, produced by the GPC, to advise and inform practices and LMCs as to what the new proposals may mean for them, and what they should think about as they consider how they would be implemented are available here.

QoF, Achievement Data 09/10 and Indicator Diabetes 23

The QOF achievement data for 2009/10 was published this week. A summary of the results and full spreadsheets can be found here. Following on from an article published by GP Notebook on 30 September titled ‘Targeting Type 2 diabetes’, NHS Employers and the GPC would like to clarify that there have been no changes to the HbA1c targets for diabetes in 2010/2011. NICE published their menu of recommended changes on 3 August 2010 which included a recommendation to increase to the HbA1c target for DM23 from 7, as it is currently, to 7.5. In line with the new QOF process, this menu of recommendations is now subject to agreement through formal negotiations between NHS Employers and GPC on changes to QOF across the UK. Once negotiations have concluded, any changes to the QOF will be published by NHSE and the BMA and the QOF guidance will be updated and published on the relevant websites ahead of the new QOF year.

Delegation of GPC Powers to Sessional GPs Subcommittee

The GPC has changed its standing orders and formally agreed to delegate power to act on matters that relate wholly or primarily to sessional GPs to the GPC Sessional GPs Subcommittee. The delegation of powers will take effect from the subcommittee’s first meeting of the session, on Thursday 2 December.

SCR

The SCR review is now complete and guidance from NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) has been sent to PCTs/SHAs. Currently, the main implications from the review are to GP practices that have created SCRs containing more than the core clinical information of medication, allergies and adverse reactions. As we understand, practices in Tees have only included core clinical information but if you have any concerns please contact the LMC or PCT. Further guidance will follow from NHS Connecting for Health for the practices concerned. In addition, constructive discussions are taking place around the practicalities of implementing the SCR Review recommendations and further communications/guidance will follow in due course. Until this guidance is forthcoming, we would advise practices to continue dialogue with PCTs but practices should not feel pressured to create SCRs.