Month end, and the NHS return is due
Your clinic runs NHS hearing services under a contract with the local commissioner, as well as private work. Each month you submit activity: assessments, fittings, follow-ups, aftercare, perhaps waiting times. Each pathway step has its own rules. The return is built from diary exports, a spreadsheet of NHS patients, and whatever the audiologists noted.
Someone spends a couple of days sorting, checking and chasing missing details. A patient with no referral date. A follow-up recorded as private by mistake. A fitting that happened but was never marked.
Why the return is so much work
- NHS and private patients share the same diary and system, and are sorted by hand.
- The fields the contract needs, such as referral date, pathway stage and outcome, are not captured consistently at the appointment.
- Missing information is discovered at month end, when it is hardest to fix.
- Each commissioner can have its own format and definitions.
- Waiting time figures need dates that are held in several places.
The root cause is that the return is treated as a report to produce at month end, when it really depends on data captured correctly at each appointment.
What the scramble costs
Staff time every month. Activity that is delivered but not claimed because it was recorded wrongly. Queries from the commissioner when figures do not add up. And a sense that the NHS work is harder to manage than it should be, which can make a clinic reluctant to grow it.
| Field | Usual problem | What we build |
|---|---|---|
| Funding route | Sorted by hand at month end | Set at booking, carried through |
| Referral date | Missing or in a letter | Required field when booking NHS patients |
| Pathway step | Recorded inconsistently | Chosen from the contract's list |
| Outcome | In free text notes | Structured choice at the end of the appointment |
| Waiting times | Worked out manually | Calculated from recorded dates |
How we build it
- We read your contract's reporting requirements with you and list every field and definition the return needs.
- At booking, the funding route is set, and for NHS patients the referral details are captured, with required fields enforced.
- At each appointment, the clinician chooses the pathway step and outcome from the contract's list, in a few clicks at the end of the appointment.
- A validation screen runs through the month, listing NHS appointments missing any required field, so they are fixed while the details are fresh.
- At month end, the return is generated in the format your commissioner asks for, with a summary for the practice manager to check before submitting.
- Figures reconcile back to individual appointments, so any query can be answered quickly.
Your contract and your commissioner's rules decide what is counted and how. We build to those rules and do not interpret them for you.
When the contract changes, as they do at renewal, the list of fields and definitions is updated in one place. The validation screen and the report follow, so nobody has to rebuild a spreadsheet around a new template. Private patients are untouched by any of this and carry on through the same diary as before.
What month end looks like afterwards
The return is checked and submitted rather than rebuilt. Missing details are caught during the month. Claims include everything that was delivered. Queries are answered from the underlying appointments. And the clinic can consider growing its NHS work without growing the admin in step.
Does this describe your NHS reporting?
- NHS and private appointments are separated by hand each month.
- Month end brings a hunt for missing referral dates or outcomes.
- You suspect some delivered activity is never claimed.
- Commissioner queries take time to answer.
- Only one person knows how to build the return.