GP Systems of Choice is the new contractual structure under which the NHS in England will pay for existing practice systems outside the LSP (Local Service Provider) contracts. It allows practices to chose to retain their existing system or to move to another GPSoC compliant system and reduces the financial cost to PCTs of supporting these systems.
This section will cover:
In a letter to Hamish Meldrum of the BMA, Ben Bradshaw, Minister of State for Health Services wrote in September 2007 about the purpose of GPSoC and repeated GPs right to choose their system even when an ‘integrated LSP system’ appears:
"GPSoC … recognized that the functionality provided by existing GP systems suppliers was greater than that which the LSPs were proposing to provide in the short term. It ensured that the existing system suppliers could follow a progressive development plan … to deliver the NHS Care Record Service, whilst providing best value for money in the shot to medium term. We expect that it time the benefits of the functionality being developed for the LSP integrated systems will become self-evident and compelling, and that GPs will elect to move to these in due course."
NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) describe GP Systems of Choice as:
"a new scheme through which the NHS will fund the provision of GP clinical IT systems in England. GPSoC allows practices and primary care trusts (PCTs) to benefit from a range of quality GP clinical IT systems from existing suppliers who will now be contracted to work within the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT)."
The website continues to say:
‘Practices will be able to choose between systems provided by their LSP or by suppliers that are contracted to offer systems on the GPSoC Framework.
If the system in use in a practice is GPSoC Level 2 compliant as a minimum, practices will be able to continue to use their existing systems under the GPSoC Framework.’
CfH has developed a pathway of development for GP systems to deliver National Programme for IT functionality and they have called it the GPSoC Solution Maturity Model. “Level 2 compliant’ refers to the second step on the Maturity Model where the system meets the core CfH requirements for a GP Clinical IT System and it has the functionality required to do Choose and Book, link to the Spine and the Personal Demographic Service and support Electronic Prescription Service, phase 1.
So, if your current system is level 2 compliant, GPSoC supports your right to retain your system, even if others would have you change.
Connecting for Health publish an up-to-date list of Planned GPSoC Framework suppliers and systems here
The latest information on the Maturity Model and the compliance status of all the accredited systems can be found on the “Choice of system” section of the CfH GPSoC website:
Under GPSoC, CfH will provide central funding for the annual software licence charges and NPfIT upgrades to existing GP clinical IT systems. PCTs will have to continue up fund the annual support charges, which are £650 per practice per year. They will also have to continue to fund locally selected additional services in full.
There is a more detailed explanation at Who Pays for What on the GPSoC website.
GPSoC funding for improvements to general practice IT infrastructure was released to PCTs in July 2007 as a contribution to the costs of upgrading the infrastructure in line with the NHS CFH general practice IT Infrastructure Specification.
The specification sets out the requirements for the IT infrastructure that supports the delivery of IM&T services to practices, and the priorities, set out by type of IT infrastructure, for funding upgrades to the infrastructure.
The goal is to ‘upgrade IT assets to achieve compliance with the General Practice IT Infrastructure Specification by December 2007. We have more information and you can download a copy of the Infrastructure Specification document here.
Three standard agreements have been developed in negotiation with the GPSoC Framework suppliers, PCTs, the Joint GP IT Committee and chairs of the GP system user groups and the final version was approved in January 2008. These agreements will replace current practice-supplier agreements, simplify the current contractual arrangements and transfer the contractual responsibilities for General Practice IM&T to PCTs.
The PCT-Practice Agreement and its associated Service Level Agreement is most importance to practices. We recommend that practices sign the documents once they are content with the Service offered by their PCT as the best way of protecting your right to use the clinical computer system that you prefer.
You can find out more about the contracts and links to the documents here.
The latest document from CfH, called the 'Revised Review Process', outlining the steps to be taken by practices, PCTs and suppliers to implement GPSoC is available on the GPSoC website, along with further information about the GPSoC Framework at ‘How to Get Started’ which also carries a link to a more detailed description of how this process is expected to happen: GPSoC’s ‘Step by Step Guides’.