The BMA has confirmed that practices will be in breach of their contract if they fail to agree to data from their cloud-based telephone systems being extracted from 1 October.
The imposed 2024/25 GP contract set out that NHS England will take monthly data on usage of digital telephone systems that focuses on nine metrics. It will be used to improved understanding of pressures on general practice, the Government has said (see also box).
After an email was sent to practices inviting them to comply with the data extraction, which will begin on 1 October, the BMA sought its own legal advice.
And an update from the GP Committee England (GPCE) has said that ‘ practices cannot decline the instructions, as doing so will risk breaching their contract.
It warned: ‘GPCE advice is that should a practice fail to sign up to the CBT data extraction ahead of the October 1st deadline, there may be a risk of a breach notice being imposed as well as contravening the Health and Social Care Act 2012.’
Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair at GPCE, further explained in the update that the BMA has ‘made it clear to NHS England that the data must not be used to performance manage practices or single them out for criticism’.
Meanwhile, declining to ‘agree to share call volume data metrics’ with NHS England is included in one of the 10 measures drawn up by the GPCE that practices can take as part of the ongoing collective action.
However, the BMA told our sister title Pulse that this option is not being removed from its menu for collective action, despite the fresh legal clarification, since it only refers to the period before October 1, before the requirements of the contract kick in.
In addition, GPCE has said its guidance on online consultations – another option in the GP collective action – remains unchanged. Practices should hold off from signing an agreement to keep online triage tools switched on throughout core practice opening hours, it said.
PCN DES guidance says that practices must make online triage software available to patients between 8am and 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, irrespective of practice capacity, if they are to receive full funding via PCNs from the Local Capacity and Access Improvement Payment (CAIP).
Dr Wrigley said: ‘GPCE has significant concerns around online consultation software being available to patients for the duration of 08:00-18:30 given practices’ lack of capacity, and their responsibilities for ensuing patient safety.’
He added: ‘GPCE advice continues to apply here: clinical directors are advised not to sign this particular declaration presently, but to await further guidance closer to the financial year end.’
What data will be collected on digital telephone systems and why?
The data required focuses on nine metrics: call volumes; calls abandoned; call times to answer; missed call volumes; wait time before call abandoned; call backs requested; call backs made; average call length time; and total number of inbound calls that are answered.
An NHS England data provision notice sent to practices explains that the call data will provide insight to ‘national and ICB teams regarding the level of demand on general practice’.
It also says the data will be considered alongside existing data collections, such as online consultations submissions and GP Appointments Data (GPAD), which are already being collected by NHS England.
‘Where possible, cloud-based telephony suppliers will provide NHS England with aggregate data as this is considered sufficient to enable NHS England to provide better insight into patient demand and access trends,’ it further explained.
