ABDO has updated members today with the news from the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC) that NHS England has agreed to cancel planned General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) grant deductions to offset contractors’ personal protective equipment (PPE) costs.
Members were informed: “As explained in previous OFNC updates, the OFNC has agreed with NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care [DHSC] that NHS-funded PPE would be provided to all GOS contractors, and has continued to work with NHS England on a pragmatic solution to reimburse practices for PPE costs they incurred before the DHSC PPE portal was made accessible to GOS contractors on 17 August.
“The OFNC’s goal has been to ensure that practices do not lose out from having to source PPE privately for NHS work, while avoiding the bureaucratic burdens involved in submitting and processing receipts, and splitting PPE costs between NHS and self-funded care.
“The OFNC has now agreed with DHSC and NHS England that the most pragmatic way of achieving this is by cancelling the planned GOS support payment deductions of 6.43 per cent for mandatory contract holders, and 7.86 per cent for additional (domiciliary) service contracts, that were due to be applied to support payments for the period from 1 April to 17 June 2020. Contractors do not need to take any action to implement this agreement.
“NHS England has made no deductions to date and now will not do so. This means that contractors no longer need to hold back provision for the retrospective deductions from the support payments they received during the first lockdown.
“We hope GOS contractors will welcome this as a fair and simple solution, which avoids adding to the administrative burdens on practices in these difficult times.
“We are also updating the OFNC FAQs guidance to reflect this development.”
Read more OFNC guidance for England here.