Waiting for the Data

So far this month the data has been submitted to QMAS - which stumbled and recovered a couple of days later. PCTs should have received the final data and I have had a short holiday.

I came back from my holiday to an email asking about the status of the data currently showing on QMAS. This is not available to the public as yet as it has not been finalised. We can expect the final data, for England at least, around September. I can see from emails and server logs however that many users of this site work in the NHS itself and so may have access to the QMAS data. Can it be relied upon?

It is useful to know the stages the data passes through. Data from practices should have been signed off on QMAS by now. The signing of process signifies the agreement with the submitted data by the practice and the guidance describes it as a legal declaration that the submission is accurate. In the vast majority of cases this will lead directly to payment without further changes, often within a few weeks.

In some cases there is disagreement from the PCT, most often querying a claim. This normally relates to some disagreement over the interpretation of an indicator although occasionally it may be used to customise QOF to some local and special circumstance - particularly in the clinical areas where the data is automatically extracted. It is this process which must be completed by June, although it is rare that it takes this long.

In any case PCTs should be aware by now of any disputed figures. If you are working in the PCT it is hopefully a simple matter to find out who is dealing with these disputes, make them a coffee and ask if they are aware of any possible changes to the data. If there is no dispute the data can probably be considered as final.

The rest of us will just have to wait.