A few pointers towards maximising efficiency

One thing I am consistently asked is how I make sure a practice is financially secure. In my opinion, the key element of being financially secure is to offer your patients all the services your practice has the capacity to deliver. I always ensure I review each DES and LES available to the practice and calculate which services generate the highest level of profitability.

It is essential to keep a track of your activity by making sure you claim and get paid for everything you do in a timely manner. I would advise that you use a budgeting facility through your accounting software to do this or if you are less confident, monitor it by setting up a basic Excel spreadsheet. Not all of your income will come through the NHSE Open Exeter statements, so reviewing them each month alongside all other NHS remittance advices, is vital.

A tool has recently been launched by Pulse Magazine called Pulse Intelligence. It is based on information provided by NHS digital data which covers general practice income streams. You can use this data to compare your practice to the highest earning practices in your CCG, or among similar practices to your own, across every income stream – including all the core contractual payments, enhanced services and QOF. It could potentially highlight areas in which your practice may be under-performing.

The site also includes a local services section which provides the details of every local enhanced service or incentive scheme that each CCG offers practices in each area; including the payments per activity/patient and service specification requirements. As with comparing with the core income streams, you can compare at a glance how service arrangements and payments differ in each CCG area both locally and nationally.

It also features details for your own and every other Network in the country, and allows you to compare with neighbouring practices as well as Networks. You can measure your practice against those similar to yours and see why they differ, and the reasons why you maybe under-performing in comparison. This is one of the tools that will help to put your practice income into context and can be found by clicking here.