Quality and outcomes framework indicators for managing multiple long-term conditions could be added to the 2016/17 GMS contract.
Advisors from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will be considering adding the new indicators at a meeting next month.
NICE chair Professor David Haslam told a Pulse Live conference earlier this year that he is “committed to developing clinical guidance on managing multimorbidity”.
At the event he said: “Single long-term conditions – which is the way NHS is organised generally apart from primary care – is the rarity.
“What I know for certain is taking the NICE guidelines for each [single] condition and adding them together is no way to deliver quality care for that person. It’s absolutely clear we have to find a way of addressing the whole complex issue of multimorbidity and that’s something NICE is absolutely up for.”
The change would make a move away from single incentives for managing multiple chronic conditions.
However, proposals for combining multiple aspects of diabetes care could feature in next year’s QOF.
The primary care QOF indicator Advisory Committee will also be considering parity of esteem’ for mental and physical health, outcomes and integrated care.
