England Only - Appointment Mode Mapping

General Practice Appointments Data (GPAD) is required to support the NHS Long-Term Plan, and Investment and Evolution, the five-year GP contract framework. The GPAD programme improves data collection establishing a consistent method by which Practices can capture Appointment Mode data, for example, Face to Face or Home Visit and report this to GPAD.

This results in you having to select an Appointment Mode from a list of options. We are implementing this change in two steps to help transition the change.
The first step is delivered in Appointments Setup 3.4 and provides the ability to map Slot Types to an Appointment Mode either in bulk or one by one. The data recorded is automatically extracted as part of the weekly GPAD extract.
The second step is to be delivered in Appointments Setup 3.5 and introduces the mandatory element of this requirement.
If any Slot Types require mapping to an Appointment Mode, a message advises you of this and gives you the option to Map now or Map later. Selecting Map now displays the Modes screen, where you can filter the outstanding unmapped Slot Types. Selecting Map later allows you to defer on that one occasion and carry on using the Appointments Setup as you need to.

What are the benefits of this new functionality?

• Having a standardised method of recording the method of booking an appointment helps achieve more reliable reporting of Appointment Mode.
• An improvement to the quality of GPAD reporting enables a better understanding of how appointments are planned and managed locally. This can help inform local operations, national policy and planning decisions.
• Without this new functionality, it is likely that the accuracy of GPAD would continue to decline. This is because as more and more appointments are being conducted through ever more diverse methods, this is not being accurately and consistently reflected in GPAD reporting.