The Quality and Outcomes Framework: QOF – transforming general practice

Steve Gillam (Cambridge) and I have just had a new book released about the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF).  General practice in the UK faces transformation following the introduction of the Quality & Outcomes Framework (QOF), a pay-for-performance scheme unprecedented in the NHS, and the most comprehensive scheme of its kind in the world. Champions claim the QOF advances the quality of primary care; detractors fear the end of general practice as we know it. The introduction of the QOF provides a unique opportunity for research, analysis and reflection. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of the QOF, examining the claims and counter-claims in depth through the experience of those delivering QOF, comparisons with other countries, and analysis of the wealth of research evidence emerging. Assessments of the true impact of QOF will influence the development of health services in the UK and beyond. This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the future of general practice and primary care, including health professionals, trainers, students, MRCGP candidates and researchers, managers, and policy-makers and shapers.

The Quality and Outcomes Framework has deeply divided UK general practitioners. I commend this book and applaud its determination to scrutinise every aspect of the Quality and Outcomes Framework – good and bad and in-between.

– From the Foreword by Iona Heath.

Contributors to the book include the architects of the QOF, developers, researchers, practitioners and commentators: http://www.radcliffe-oxford.com/books/bookdetail.aspx?ISBN=1846194563

New studies and researchers

Last year was a very active period for the School of Health & Social Care and the Community and Health Research Group. During 2009/10 we submitted over 30 bids to a value of over £5M. We were successful in 17 of 25 of the bids for which we were notified of an outcome to a value of nearly £1M. Successful research outputs including peer reviewed publications in national and international journals, conference outputs, editorials and books/chapters which are being posted on the Research Repository.

The group includes two new research fellows, Dr Zowie Davy and Dr Markos Klonizakis. Fiona Togher joined us as a research assistant, working on the Ambulance Services Cardiovascular Quality Initiative (ASCQI: Health Foundation, £475k).

Jo Middlemass joins us in November from Nottingham University working on a new study; Exploring social Networks to Augment Cognitive behavioural Therapy (ENACT: EPSRC, £465k) which was featured in a recent BBC article:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11454894.

We are also recruiting for a new study Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccination and risk of Stroke and TIA (IPVASTIA: Research for Patient Benefit, £103k) which follows the IPVAMI study published last month in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, “Influenza vaccination, pneumococcal vaccination and risk of acute myocardial infarction: matched case-control study”:http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.091891v1. The findings have featured in international news media in the UK, Canada and USA: http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,616179348001_2021408,00.html.

Welcome!

The School of Health and Social Care Community and Health Research Group (CAHRG) are pleased to produce the ‘Community and Health Research News’ blog to complement our newsletter, ‘Research News’. The newsletter and blog aim to provide regular updates on the group’s activities, to complement staff web entries and link to the Research Repository to increase awareness of current work. We hope this will promote further interest in research activity and the development of internal and external collaborations.