Retired QOF CQRS extraction

Sent to all GPs and Practice Managers in LLR

Thursday 29th January 2015

Dear colleague,

We have been made aware of concerns relating to the request from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) to extract data related to retired QOF indicators. We have taken these concerns to the GPC, who have taken up the profession’s legitimate concerns with NHS England and NHS Employers. Please see statement as below:

"We have received an apology from NHS England for the error which resulted in the HSCIC statement that “it is a requirement for general practices to ensure they continue to provide the services linked to these indicators”. All parties have agreed that this is incorrect and not in accordance with the agreement negotiated between GPC and NHS Employers.

As a result of our intervention, HSCIC have replaced the statement with “Practices continue to undertake the work and code activity related to retired indicators as clinically appropriate. This data extraction will help inform commissioners and provide statistical information but is not intended for performance management purposes”. The HSCIC documents have been republished www.hscic.gov.uk/retiredQOF

The GPC is also writing to the CQC to alert them to this issue and to seek assurance that it will not use redundant QOF indicators to judge the performance of practices.

In summary:

• The CQRS retired QOF points extraction is not mandatory and does not affect payments;
• Failure to agree to data extraction might adversely affect CQC intelligent monitoring.

We will continue to pursue a more definitive position for practices.

Kind Regards,

Anu Rao
Medical Secretary