QOF scores rose by 1% last year, with a third more GP practices scoring at least 90% of the points available, according to new NHS figures.
Data from the NHS Information Centre show practices in England achieved an average of 94.7% QOF points in 2010/11, up 1% from the previous year.
As QOF performance improved across the board, the number of practices failing to score at least 90% of QOF points fell from 1,208 to 806, a decrease of a third (33%) from 2009/10 levels. The number of practices achieving maximum points rose from 80 to 105 – an increase of 23%.
QOF scoring levels rose across all 20 areas in the clinical domain, which accounts for 697 out of the total 1,000 QOF points. The highest increases saw practices score 3.4% more depression points than 2009/10, 2.5% more heart disease points, while palliative care scores rose by 2.1%.
Over half of practices (52.2%) achieved maximum points for additional services, up 13.5% from 2009/10. The average QOF scores for contraceptive services climbed 6.1%, while rises were also recorded in the cervical screening (0.5%), child health surveillance (0.8%) and maternity (0.8%) indicators.
The data also shows GPs have halted the decline in patient experience indicators that contributed to an overall 1.7% fall in QOF scores in 2009/10. In 2010/11 patient experience points rose 1.1%.
Over a quarter of practices (26.2%) achieved maximum QOF points in the organisational domain in 2010/11, up 3.1% from the previous year.
