NEWS: NHS awards full points to PCNs

As reported by GP Online. due to IT issues affecting appointment data, NHS England granted all PCNs 100% achievement for last year’s investment and impact fund access target

An update from the England BMA GP committee said that a ‘significant flaw’ in data processing that maps patient appointments had affected practices using the SystmOne clinical system.

The BMA said it appeared that although practices accurately mapped appointment slots in line with the IIF indicator many did not achieve the targets because ‘legacy mapping’ had persisted rather than the system using updated mapping the practice had used.

‘Some practices have lost significant sums of money – in some cases, running into thousands of pounds,’ the BMA said.

Access targets

The GP committee had written to NHS England to set out the problem and, as a result, all PCNs will now be ‘considered to have earned 100% of the points available for this indicator’.

‘NHS England has now acknowledged that due to the issues we highlighted, GP appointment data will not be able to serve as a robust source of achievement data for 2023/24 and the usual route to correcting data locally through the declaration process is likely to require a disproportionate amount of local effort this year,’ the BMA update said.

The IIF for 2023/24 included an indicator relating to the percentage of patients who waited less that two weeks for an appointment, with practices expected to hit between 85% and 90% to receive payment. Overall the indicator was worth £16m across England.

The IIF has been significantly stripped back for 2024/25 and targets relating to access no longer apply. There are just two IIF targets for this year relating to learning disability health checks and FIT testing for suspected cancer referrals.