Chapter 10 – Supporting information management and technology in England
10.1 The specification for the information management and technology Directed Enhanced Service (DES) can be found at Annex 7 .
10.2 The first component of the new DES will be payable to practices who agree a practice plan with the Primary Care Organisation (PCO). Practices should be paid the equivalent of 40p per registered patient (as measured by the Exeter system on 1 April 2006). Following agreement between a practice and a PCO that the practice is eligible for this component, payment should occur as soon as possible.
10.3 Award for the second component should be payable to practices who acquire accreditation of their practice data. As outlined in Annex 7 , there will be a three-part process for data accreditation, which culminates in a visit by the PCO. PCOs will need to plan these visits and will want to:
(i) nominate a lead who is responsible for planning the visits, and ensuring consistency of the visiting approach and reporting of visits
(ii) bear in mind that their visits will require workforce capacity involving assessors.
10.4 Further guidance about the data accreditation process, in particular information that PCTs and practices will need to complete the assessment visit, will be developed by NHS Employers, the GPC and Connecting for Health and will be available by the end of March 2006.
10.5 Practices should receive payment for the second component as soon as possible following accreditation. Practices should be paid the equivalent of 44p per registered patient as measured at the start of the quarter in which accreditation is achieved. (For example, if a practice achieves data accreditation in March 2007, payment should be based on the number of registered patients on 1 January 2007.)
10.6 Practices should receive an award for component 3 of this DES once they have successfully completed the requirements set out in paragraph 8 of Annex 7 , which includes maintenance of patients addresses with opportunistic regular validation with patients and preparation for and utilisation of EPS Release 1 software.
10.7 Practices should be paid the equivalent of 27p per registered patient as measured at the start of the quarter in which this component is achieved.
10.8 Practices should receive an award for component 4 of this DES following migration to a Connecting for Health accredited server. Connecting for Health will provide PCOs with electronic evidence of those practices that have successfully migrated to an accredited server. Practices should be paid the equivalent of 22p per registered patient as measured at the start of the quarter in which this component is achieved.