Six thousand practices switch to Systems of Choice

A total of 94% of eligible practices had switched to a GP Systems of Choice (GPSoC) contract by the deadline of 31 March, according to Connecting for Health (CfH).

The DH IT agency said over 6,000 practices were included in a call-off agreement which will mean funding for their clinical system will, as of 1 April, come from CfH.

A spokesperson for CfH told EHI Primary Care: “This was a significant logistical exercise and shows the commitment of suppliers, PCTs, GPs and NHS CfH to making GP Systems of Choice a success.”

CfH said the remaining practices have been entered onto its tracking database and that PCTs would work with suppliers to sign the call off agreements and bring them into GPSoC during the next few months.

Eight suppliers were accepted on to the GPSoC framework last summer. Four GP suppliers, EMIS, INPS, iSoft and Microtest, have signed a contract with CfH and have a system compliant to level two or above making them eligible for GPSoC funding.

CSC has yet to sign a contract with CfH for supply of TPP’s SystmOne although it is level two compliant. New entrants to the market Waveform Solutions have also yet to sign a contract. Healthy Software and Seetec have signed a contract but are not yet level two compliant.

The 94% of eligible practices that have been switched to a GPSoC contract will now be expected to sign CfH’s PCT-Practice Agreement setting out each party’s responsibilities. CfH initially set a deadline of 30 April for agreements to be signed but the agency now predicts that not all PCTs will meet that deadline.

A spokesperson said: “The PCT-Practice Agreement is intended to reduce conflict between PCTs and practices by clarifying each party’s responsibilities. For the first time this requires all PCTs to deliver service management activities in accordance with Service Level Agreements (SLAs). A number of PCTs who already have SLAs in place will find it easier to progress signing of the PCT-Practice Agreement while others will need to develop these before they can sign the agreement locally.”

CfH said it expected PCTs to work with practices to explain the content and the purpose of the PCT-practice agreement and that more guidance would also be posted on the CfH website.

The spokesperson added: “Ideally, PCTs will aim to sign PCT-Practice Agreements by the end of April 08. However we recognise that PCTs and practices will need to agree on the local aspects of the agreement and agree local targets for getting the agreements signed. We will be monitoring progress with the help of strategic health authority chief information officers.”

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GPSoC contracts due for completion this month