A consultation is to be launched imminently into the future of QOF, the primary care minister has said.
Responding to a written question from Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Chi Onwurah, Neil O’Brien said the profession and representative patient groups will be consulted on QOF and its future form this summer.
He said: ‘In response to feedback from practice teams, General Practice Committee England and the Health and Care Select Committee on the Future of Primary Care, the profession and representative patient groups will be consulted on the Quality and Outcomes Framework and its future form in summer 2023.’
Earlier this year, NHS England announced that the current QOF system would be reviewed during 2023/24 so it becomes more ‘streamlined and focused’, with an overhauled model being launched the following year.
The commissioner had also said that views from GPs, patients and ‘the broader system’ would be sought and taken into account ‘to determine the most appropriate form’ for QOF in 2024/25.
The 2023/24 QOF activity has been ‘streamlined’ too under the changes to the GP contract, with the number of indicators in QOF also cut by a quarter, from 74 to 55.
Meanwhile, GP negotiators will demand QOF, IIF and PCN DES monies are all moved into one simplified core general practice funding stream in new contract discussions.
‘Quality monitoring and regulation of contracting must be light touch with low levels of bureaucracy’, the GPC has said.
The 2024/25 contract negotiations will be the first since the end of the five-year deal.
GPC England urged doctors to join the BMA ahead of a potential ballot over industrial action if 2024/25 contract negotiations turn sour.
Northern Ireland’s Department of Health has suspended QOF for this year to reduce ‘administrative burden on practices’ following contract negotiations with the BMA.
It’s important to retain the elements of QOF focused on secondary prevention.
There is too much emphasis on the ‘icing on the cake’ measures in patient health when the actual cake is rotten. We need to go back to the basics and get them right. Patients want better access and a less legalistic tick box approach that floods the notes with negative findings.
We need to provide a brass level service to match the brass level funding and reject the unaffordable gold standards being foisted on us.
its lose lose for GPs. If QOF goes, the income from it will not go into global. It will disappear or be moved to PCNs and you’ll have to work twice as hard without any control to get it, and share it with your PCN. Careful what you wish for.
Did we miss QOF (or appraisal) during COVID? No
Do they help retain and motivate staff? No
Scrap them and see what happens.
I think NOYNelly is spot on. If QOF goes the income will magically disappear, buried in the smoke and mirrors of “reinvestment” and “redistribution”.
Few of us could survive the ensuing financial black hole.
As much as we all loathe and despise QOF’s useless time-devouring box ticking pointlessness, losing the income would be the final death-blow for many Practices.
“GPs to be consulted on the future of QOF this summer” – and then ignored
Love it.
“Do you want to agree to our demands or shall we impose them?”
For them it is like shooting fish in a barrel.
The only thing we really need is stability. Some of QOF is easy win and losing QOF could be seriously to our detriment when they replace it with tougher actions in other areas. They are never just going to give money without strings and we shouldn’t be naïve about that. Keep QOF but without shifting the goal posts and we should be in a good spot.
‘After consultation with a senior GP, it was decided that QOF was a good idea and that it would be continued until further notice’, an NHS spokesperson said.