NHS England has published the latest version of the GPIT Operating Model alongside a new ICB practice agreement, to outline the terms around the provision of digital services in general practice.
The updated ICB practice agreement sets out that ICBs are responsible for providing at a minimum the digital services to meet core and mandated requirements for practices. At least once per year, ICBs should formally review digital services with practices, incorporating discussion of performance, implementation plans, training requirements, business continuity or incident management arrangements, and plans for future delivery of digital services.
Practices and ICBs are expected to reach agreement on foundation solutions, jointly undertaking the selection process and mutually agreeing a migration plan, NHSE states, including working together to terminate existing contracts. If both parties agree to the termination, “NHS England or the ICB will be responsible for paying administrative costs for terminating any existing contract and entering into a new contract with a supplier”, it adds. ICBs then have responsibility for delivering the deployment and migration of data from one solution to another, with the potential to assign a delivery partner if required.
ICBs will make online solutions for patients available to practices, jointly agreeing on which to be used from the DSIC Catalogue of Frameworks. They will also be required to support with the deployment and use of National Digital Services. Business continuity plans for practices will be approved by ICBs, and practices are expected to support ICBs in meeting obligations under NIS Regulations to report serious network or information incidents.
For software and IT infrastructure, ICBs assume responsibility to procure and deliver core and mandated requirements to practices, ensure managed GP IT infrastructure is provided and maintained in line with refresh programmes or plans in the operating model, and comply with patch management, operating system updates, anti-virus definition updates, and other cyber security controls. This responsibility extends to the secure disposal of “redundant” GP IT assets and their data.
From a practice perspective, responsibility covers improving processes that have led to breaches in data or clinical safety, and working with ICBs to support NHS local and national strategic objectives and policies for information management and tech relating to primary care. Practices will need to identify an individual responsible for IT matters including data and cyber security, and an individual to be named as data protection officer. They will further carry out training needs analyses for staff use of digital services, and prepare a training plan identifying staff to be trained and the training requested from the ICB over an agreed period.
Wider trend: Primary care digital transformation
NHS England published changes to the GP Contract for 2026/27 earlier this year, looking to build on existing work around improving access for patients, and making changes to QOF, vaccinations, and “enabling practices to prioritise clinically urgent needs”. Investment in the contract will increase by £485 million in 2026/27, NHSE shares, bringing the total contract value to £13,863 million, and offering “a 3.6 percent cash growth or 1.4 percent real terms growth relative to the GDP deflator”. The contract makes a number of changes to current requirements for GP registration, with the use of online registration to be mandated in all cases, and practices required to input information from paper registration forms into the national online registration system.
HTN was joined for a recent HTN Now webinar by an expert panel to discuss AI in primary care, covering successes and challenges with implementing AI in primary care, governance, adoption, and other practical learnings. Katie Baker, Director UK & Ireland of Tandem Health; Mateen Ellahi, GP and member of NHSE primary care advisory group, South Stockton PCN, Elm Tree Surgery; and Paul Miller, head of IT at Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB made up our panel.
Suffolk and North East Essex (SNEE) ICB has published a contract with a total value of £5.2 million, seeking an IT provider to support with GP IT modernisation in alignment with the Primary Care Digital Services Model. The ICB focuses on securing the right technology and support for GP practice and PCN staff, with the selected supplier to deliver “a stable, flexible IT system to support a collaborative, productive workforce”. Key requirements include supporting the ability for staff across the system to work from any location, ensuring mobile devices can interface with functionality and software in practices, and enabling certain IT tasks to be undertaken locally by practice staff to reduce delays to end user local service provision Suppliers should also be able to leverage the benefits of cloud architecture to deliver “innovative” GP IT support, according to the ICB.
