More QOF

I've already spoken about QOF, but would like to mention a bit more (and I'm sure it won't be the last time).

The rules have changed for this year's QOF. Let me give an example. You score points for doing certain things which are deemed good clinical practice, one of these is for checking cholesterol levels in patients who are diabetic. The QOF looks at the percentage of patients who have had this done. There is a maximum of 3 points available. Previously you started scoring points once 25% of patients had been checked, and it increased in a linear fashion until you got to 90%, whereby you got maximum points.

This year the minimum threshold has been set at 40%; in other words you have to do more work before you can start scoring points at all.

In addition new targets have been included this year. One huge problem is knowing if you're collecting the right data at present for the new targets to get the points.

Medical data is coded using "Read codes". Sounds simple enough; but unfortunately any given medical diagnosis can have several different read codes, some of which are acceptable for QOF, some of which are not. This is an example of the information available to determine what codes are needed to be used for the new chronic kidney disease section of QOF.

You need a bit of IT savvy to make sense of this.

Many GPs are going to have to wait until the Autumn for some software which will make sense of the above, and allow them to know if they're collecting the correct data. Until then it's fingers crossed.