Further role for NHS Choices in DES guidance

Patients will be able to check whether their GP practice meets national data accreditation standards via NHS Choices, according to NHS Connecting for Health.

The IT agency has released new guidance on the IM&T directed enhanced service (DES), which reveals plans to publish practices’ data accreditation status.

The guidance states that data accreditation activity logged on the CfH tracking database will be linked to the NHS Choices website “to enable patients to see if their practice is accredited to nationally agreed standards.”

The guidance also reminds primary care trusts that the deadline for practices to qualify for payments under the DES has been extended to 31 March 2009.

However, it points out that in order to be eligible for DES payments, practices must have expressed an interest in taking part in the DES by the end of February 2007.

Dr Gillian Braunold, clinical director of the Summary Care Record, said approximately 50% of practices have expressed an interest in the DES with a further 10% of practices logged as taking part in an equivalent local enhanced service (LES).

She said: “Practices that come in after the end of February 2007 can only do a LES. A LES is helpful as a lever to encourage practices to meet the data accreditation standards.”

The guidance recommends that PCTs offer a LES if they want to increase the qualifying timescale beyond March 2009 or include practices not currently take part in the scheme.

The guidance adds: “PCTs should ensure that any local processes follow the same data accreditation standards within the IM&T DES, including the requirement for practices to have achieved paperlight accreditation.”