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It has been a busy month for news about the GMS contract. The results of GP practices’ achievement against the quality and outcomes framework (QOF) for 2007/08 have been published and show that GPs continue to deliver high-quality care. Further details are included in the news section of this issue of Guidelines in Practice (click here).

In addition, the NHS Employers and the General Practitioners Committee have agreed changes to the GMS contract for 2009/10. The changes have been introduced to ensure a fairer distribution of resources across practices, and to reward practices for delivering new patient services. The key revisions are as follows:

• A total of 72 QOF points are to be reallocated to seven new clinical priorities. These are:
• helping to prevent the development of cardiovascular disease in individuals diagnosed with hypertension (13 points)
• improved advice and choice regarding contraception (10 points)
• a new depression indicator to help reduce early cessation of treatment (20 points)
• improvements to indicators for: chronic kidney disease (11 points), chronic lung disease (2 points), and diabetes (7 points)
• improved drug treatment for those with heart failure (9 points).
• the method by which QOF payments are calculated will be altered to reflect the prevalence of long-term conditions within local populations. This will help to address health inequalities, with a greater proportion of funding allocated to those practices in areas of high deprivation.

Further information can be found at www.nhsemployers.org and www.bma.org.uk, and a series of articles on the 2009/10 GMS contract will update readers of Guidelines in Practice during 2009.G

Julia Morris, Editor
julia.morris@mgp.ltd.uk