PCN Support: Information, Help and Tools for Pharmacists
On 12th October, MORPh Associate Director Liz Bailey will be chatting to pharmacists from the Midlands region on her webinar about PCN support for pharmacists. Liz is such a wealth of information on the topic of support, help and tools for pharmacists that we thought we’d share her resources. She will refer to many of these in more detail in the webinar. The resources span a number of areas so we have given a brief description of each, along with useful resource links. Do get in touch if you’d like more information about PCN support or our free webinars.
PCN Support: Commissioning
Commissioning is the planning, agreeing and monitoring of services through an ongoing process. It ranges from health-needs assessments for entire populations, through to clinically designed patient pathways. It could also be service specification, contract negotiation, procurement and continuous quality assessment. Locally, some services could be designed for a population of a few thousand. Conversely for rare disorders, services must be secured nationally. This useful NHS resource explains who commissions NHS services.
What you need to know about the Quality Outcomes Framework
The Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) is a voluntary scheme to support quality care. It changes annually and is agreed with the BMA. There is an annual maximum of 635 points and for 2021/22, there are 310 protected points. Payment will be based on past performance through a framework agreed with commissioners. It includes many disease states and associated investigations or monitoring parameters. Details of the most recent QOF can be found here.
PCN Support: Putting the Network DES in context
The Network DES provides a framework for commissioning PCNs. It builds on the core work of primary care services, enabling greater provision of proactive, personalised, co-ordinated and better integrated health and social care in communities. These are crucial for meeting ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan and developing Integrated Care Systems.
NHS Reform and PCN pharmacists
As we are all aware, huge changes are afoot in the NHS and there will of course be a significant impact on Primary Care pharmacists. This resource from the Kings Fund examines the new Health and Care Bill and asks six key questions. It explains the practical implications of the changes proposed in the Health and Care Bill. Other relevant resources include the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service (DES) as updated in October 2020 and Refreshed in April 2021. Changes to income streams that could impact GMS practices and PCNs can be found in the NHS Ready Reckoner 2021/22.
Primary Care Networks – plans for 2021/22 and 2022/23
New service requirements for PCNs are to be gradually introduced. All plans and confirmation of how PCNs will access funding are available on the NHS website.
Medicines Optimisation
The four principles of patient-centred medicines optimisation are:
- Aim to understand the patient’s experience
- Evidence based choice of medicines
- Ensure medicines use is as safe as possible
- Make medicines optimisation part of routine practice
The following resources are useful in relation to medicines optimisation:
- NHS England Medicines Optimisation
- Royal Pharmaceutical Society Good Practice Guidance
- NICE Guidelines
- Right Care (2017/18 data)
PCN Support: ePACT Resources
There are a range of ePACT resources including the NHS Business Services Authority website. Individual practices can authorise access to their own data and CCGs can authorise more general access. There is a wide range of prebuilt dashboards including medication safety. The ePACT contains data on dispensed medication and always runs at least 6 weeks in arrears. You can drill down through the levels and request patient level data on prebuilt searches. Training is provided on demand by the NHS BSA.
Open Prescribing
England’s prescribing data is available on the Open Prescribing website. It can be viewed at CCG and practice level and PCN level is in development. There is a range of prebuilt analyses, and you can browse by topic, see the impact of price concessions and savings.
Liz shares an extended resource and reading list at the end of her free webinar. All attendees will have access to her slides and resources.
