GMS contract Changes

From 1st April, there will be changes to the GMS contract with equivalent changes applied to PMS and APMS contracts.  You can see more information about the contract changes here.

The global sum will be a figure of £107.57 per patient based on the contractor weighted population figure.

Practices under GMS, PMS and APMS contracts will all see an uplift of £2.84 per weighted patient (unless the contract specifies the raw list).

The average number of patients registered with a practice in England is at 9,964 patients on average.

QOF Aspiration payments will be made at 80% of the prior year’s Unadjusted Achievement Payment.

The value of each QOF point will be £220.62; this increase relates to the increase in the average practice list size.

The Network Participation Payment will be £0.147 per weighted patient.

Payment for the Learning Disabilities Health Check will be £140 per completed health check.

Payments for vaccination and immunisations remain at an item of service fee of £10.06.

QOF changes 2024/25

In the 2024/25 QOF guidance, there are a number of changes.

In particular, the guidance makes it clear that if you have no patients in the cohort, then there will be no points available for that indicator/area.

As outlined in the letter about contract changes for 2024/25 there have also been changes to the number of protected indicators for QOF. A further 13 indicators will be protected, bringing the total number of protected indicators to 32. These indicators are worth a combined 212 points and are worth a total of one third of the available income under QOF.

Income protection for 2024/25 will be set at the same level of achievement as in 2023/24, but this means that while practices will not be penalised for any fall in achievement, neither will they benefit from any improvement. It is also made clear that any income protection may vary with prevalence and list size, with these being based on 2024/25 figures, and that this therefore means the amount received by practices will not necessarily remain the same.

Practices will need to continue with diagnosis and other associated activity, as failure to do so will mean that prevalence figures may be affected and this may affect practice income at the end of the financial year.

Income protection now applies to the following additional indicators:

• AST008 – Aged 19 years or under with smoking status
• COPD014 – MRC dyspnoea scale >3 and referral
• MH021 – Six elements of Physical Health Check
• DEP004 – Reviewed between 10 and 56 days after diagnosis
• SMOK005 – Has diagnosis & offered smoking support/treatment
• CAN004 – Review within 12m of diagnosis
• CAN005 – Support information within 3m of diagnosis
• QI domain (including former QI indicators QI013, QI014, QI016, QI017, QI018 and QI019).

In addition, the following 19 register indicators were protected in 2023/24:

• AF001
• AST005
• CAN001
• CHD001
• CKD005
• COPD015
• DEM001
• DM017
• EP001
• HF001
• HYP001
• LD004
• MH001
• OB003
• OST004
• PAD001
• PC001
• RA001
• STIA001

Changes to indicators

CHOL001 is replaced by CHOL003 (no wording change).

CHOL002 is replaced by CHOL004 with wording as follows:

CHOL004. Percentage of patients on the QOF Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD), or Stroke/Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) Register, who have a recording of LDL (Low-density Lipoprotein) cholesterol in the preceding 12 months that is 2.0 mmol/L or lower, or where LDL cholesterol is not recorded, a recording of non-HDL (High-density Lipoprotein) cholesterol in the preceding 12 months that is 2.6 mmol/L
or lower.