The NHS especially like to have an acronym for everything! A practice manager has a lot of abbreviations and acronyms to remember in his/her day to day running of the practice, especially when talking to GPs.
Please feel free to add to the list.
A
ACAS – Advisory, Conciliation and Advisory Service: organisation devoted to preventing and resolving employment issues www.acas.org.uk
AFC – Agenda for Change: National pay and conditions system for NHS Staff, replaced the Whitley Council system
AQP / AWP – Any Qualified Provider and Any Willing Provider: terms used in NHS Commissioning
AMSPAR – Association of Medical Secretaries, Practice Managers, Administrators and Receptionists : membership and training organisation for practice staff www.amspar.com
APMS – Alternative Provider Medical Services: PMS contract but with a non-NHS provider subject to tender
B
BMA – British Medical Association: Represents GP interests and negotiates GP pay www.bma.org
C
CAB / C&B – Choose and Book: Choose and Book is a national electronic referral service which gives patients a choice of place, date and time for their hospital appointment www.chooseandbook.nhs.uk
CCG – Clinical Commissioning Group: GP group formed locally to commission secondary care services which replaces Primary Care Trusts. Formed by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to replace Primary Care Trusts, they help to deliver NHS services.
CG – Caldicott Guardian: Senior Person responsible for protecting the confidentiality of patient data
CMHT – Community Mental Health Team
COSHH – Control of Substances Hazardous to Health: Legislation that requires employers to control substances that are hazardous to health
CQC – Care Quality Commission: Body carrying out inspections of GP Practices www.cqc.org.uk
CQRS – Calculating Quality Reporting Service: Extracts information from GP clinical software, Successor to QOF
D
DBS – Disclosure and Barring Service: Formerly CRB, the Criminal Records Bureau.
DES – Directed Enhanced Services: National payments system for ‘additional’ services provided by a practice
DH – Department of Health www.gov.uk
E
EDI – Electronic Data Interchange
EHR – Electronic Health Record
ePACT – Electronic Prescribing Analysis and Costing Tool: Providing prescribing reports to GP Practices by the NHSBSA formerly PPA
EPR – Electronic Patient Record
EPS – Electronic Prescription Service: Now being introduced in NHS England to issue prescriptions direct to a chosen pharmacy
EMIS – Egton Medical Information Systems : GP clinical software supplier
F
FHSA – Family Health Services Authority: Successor to FPC
FPC – Family Practitioner Committee: Forerunner to FHSA and NHS Executive Council.
G
GMC – General Medical Council: National registration body for doctors www.gmc-uk.org
GMS – General Medical Services: Type of GP payments contract agreed nationally
GP – General Practitioner (Doctors) or General Practice (The Suregry).
GPC – General Practice Committee (BMA)
GPES – General Practice Extraction Service: System to extract data from GP clinical systems
GPPCS – GP Payments Calculation Service (Open Exeter)
H
HES – Hospital Episodes Statistics
HSE – Health and Safety Executive: www.hse.gov.uk see also COSHH and RIDDOR
I
IT – Information Technology
K
KSF – Key Skills Framework: Used to allocate Grades to posts as part of Agenda for Change
L
LES – Locally Enhanced Services: Local payment system for additional services provided by a practice
LMC – Local Medical Committee: Professional body representing GP’s locally
LPC – Local Pharmaceutical Committee: Professional body representing local pharmacists
M
MDU – Medical Defence Union – Provides medical indemnity cover for GPs along with legal support www.themdu.com
MIMS – Monthly Index of Medical Specialties: List and prices of prescribed drugs
MPS – Medical Protection Society: Provides medical indemnity cover for GPs along with legal support www.medicalprotection.org/uk
N
NHS – National Health Service (established in 1948)
NHSCR – National Health Service Central Register
NHSE – National Health Service Executive – governing arm of the NHS
NICE – National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
NPSA – National Patient Safety Agency
NSF – National Service Framework
O
OOH – Out of Hours: GP services provided from 18:30 to 8:00
OPCS – Office for Population Censuses and Surveys Classification of Surgical Operations and Procedures
P
PALS – Patient Advisory and Liaison Service
PAS – Patient Administration System
PBC – Practice Based Commissioning
PCO – Primary Care Organisation
PCT – Primary Care Trust: Local management of family practitioner services, now responsibilities split between NHS England area team and local Clinical Commissioning Groups. Replaced by CCQ in 2012.
PCG – Primary Care Group: Successor to FHSA
PFI – Private Finance Initiative: Funding system used for NHS premises
PHE – Public Health England
PMS – Personal Medical Services: Type of GP payment contract agreed locally
PPA – Prescription Pricing Authority: Now known as Business Services Authority, also Prescription Pricing Division provides medical indemnity cover for GPs along with legal support and Prescription Pricing Services www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/PrescriptionServices
PPG – Patient Participation Group: Sometimes called a Patient Reference Group (RRG)
PRIMIS – Primary Care Information Services (medical computer support group, England): PRIMIS tools, training and consultancy enable GP practices to access and use patient data to improve clinical performance and the accuracy of their patient records.
Q
QIPP – Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention: System of collecting clinical data
QOF – Quality Outcomes Framework: Payments systems for GPs managed by entering patient data using READ Codes
QMAS – Quality Management and Analysis System; replaced by GPES
QRISK2 (the most recent version of QRISK) – A prediction algorithm for cardiovascular disease that uses traditional risk factors together with body mass index, ethnicity, measures of deprivation, family history, chronic kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, atrial fibrillation, diabetes and antihypertensive treatment.
R
RCGP – Royal College of General Practitioners: professional membership body for UK GPs www.rcgp.org.uk
READ Codes – not an acronym, but a clinical coding system created by Dr John Read used in GP clinical systems – see SNOMED
RCN – Royal College of Nurses: Organisation representing nurses and nursing in the UK www.rcn.org.uk
RIDDOR – Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations
S
SCR – Summary Care Record
SHA – Strategic Health Authority
SNOMED Codes – Systemised Nomenclature of Medicine: Clinical Terms
T
TLA – Three Letter Acronyms
TUPE – Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment Regulations
U
UBRN – Unique Booking Reference Number; used for Choose and Book referrals
W
WTE – Whole Time Equivalent
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