GP practices get one month to opt out of revised PCN DES

GP practices have been given one month to opt out of the Network Contract DES after NHS England updated its terms.

The changes to the 2020/21 DES apply from 1 October and follow negotiation with the BMA England GP Committee, NHS England said.

NHS England outlined the three ‘substantive changes’ as:

• flexibility for the clinical lead under the Enhanced Health in Care Homes service requirements to be a non-GP;
• the introduction of two new reimbursable roles under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS); and
• the rollout of the remaining value of the Investment and Impact Fund (IIF) worth £24.25m.

Nursing associates come with a maximum annual reimbursable amount of
£29,135 per FTE, while this is £25,671 for trainees, said NHS England.

PCNs had previously received £16.25m of the £40.5m funding earmarked for the IIF. This new IIF, worth £24.25m, will ‘operate in a similar
way to QOF, with each indicator allocated a certain number of points’, NHS England said.

The guidance said: ‘For 2020/21, each IIF point will be worth £111 and there will be a total of 194 points available to each PCN.’

In a bulletin to practices sent today, NHS England said that PCNs who ‘wish to continue to provide the DES’ and ‘have no changes to any of their sign up information’ do not need to take any action, as ‘they will be auto-enrolled into the new DES’.

‘If a practice does not accept the revised terms and wishes to opt out, they must notify the commissioner by 17 October 2020,’ it added.

Last month, NHS England warned PCNs that they may lose any funding they do not spend on recruiting additional roles this year.