Due to “a series of errors,” the British Medical Association (BMA) has spoken out against Capita’s £94 million agreement with NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI). Capita said recently that it has been awarded a three-year extension to continue delivering the Primary Care Support England (PSCE) agreement until 2025, extending the existing PCSE contract it obtained in 2015.
The PCSE Online system, which digitises traditionally paper-based activities such as purchasing medical supplies, managing medical records, obtaining pension information, and processing payments, has been launched by the London-based corporation. The BMA, on the other hand, stated it has regularly expressed concerns about Capita’s management of medical data, practise payments, pension management, GP Performers List maintenance, and patient engagement.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Dr Krishan Aggarwal, deputy chair of the BMA pensions committee, claimed Capita failed to provide critical cervical screening information to 40,000 women, putting patients’ safety, GP workload, and GP finances at risk.
Capita, on the other hand, claims to have made considerable investments to assure the delivery of challenging digitalization projects for NHSEI, which it argues is doing more efficiently and at a reduced cost.
THE OVERALL CONTEXT
PCSE supports front-line primary care in England by delivering essential services to GPs, opticians, dentists, and pharmacists, as well as improving practitioner and patient satisfaction through digitalisation and service improvement.
IN THE BOOKS
With thousands of GPs’ pension files missing information, nearly seven years after Capita won the contract, the handling of pensions management remains awful, with GPs unable to obtain correct information about their pension files, Dr Aggarwal stated.
This can have a huge influence on their well-being and financial planning, potentially resulting in expensive tax penalties. NHS BSA reported NHS England to the Pensions Regulator as a result of these failures, so it’s surprising and regrettable that NHSEI continues to outsource this component of the PSCE contract to Capita. Given that this deal has been extended for another three years, Capita must fix its systems as soon as possible and ensure that GPs and their practises have access to accurate, timely information. Capita must make resolving these issues a top priority, and the BMA will keep holding it accountable if it does not.
The extension of the contract with NHSEI represents their dedication and commitment to continue to develop and perform for the organisation, as well as for all of its clients and customers, said Al Murray, Capita CEO. They are happy to have implemented a number of key digital capabilities that have improved the efficiency of the services they provide to England’s primary care practitioners. By successfully delivering for major clients and partners, they have been able to be retained.
