The Medical Practitioner’s Assurance Framework (MPAF) was launched in October 2019 by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), partly in response to the Paterson scandal. The aim is to standardise governance systems and processes across the independent sector so concerns can be detected early and addressed effectively.

The MPAF has been adopted by all private hospital groups and is considered as evidence of good governance by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as a way of meeting its ‘Well Led’ Key Line of Enquiry.

It is therefore important for independent practitioners to understand what MPAF means for them, particularly the additional information that hospitals need to obtain in order to grant and oversee their practising privileges.

The MPAF document sets out precisely what data hospitals need to grant and maintain for their practising privileges. The application covers areas, such as:
standard information, including proof of identity, demographic information, DBS certification, ICO registration, evidence of compliance with mandatory training, evidence of Hep B/Hep C/HIV status, CV and references, Designated Body and Responsible Officer.
Locations where a doctor holds practising privileges or works as a doctor.
Valid certificate of adequate insurance cover or medical indemnity.
Scope of practice, including procedure codes, procedures undertaken, volume of work in each area of practice and registries where outcome data is shared.

Healthcode recognise that this represents a huge undertaking and we are working to make the transition as smooth as possible by aligning The Private Practice Register (The PPR) with the MPAF.

Of course, a lot of this information is already included on The PPR’s 24,000 practitioner profiles (where applicable), including DBS certification, ICO registration, names of Designated Body and Responsible Officer, practice locations and basic professional indemnity details. However, we are now actively addressing the gaps in our development programme.

Take scope of practice data, for example. As the official clearing organisation for private medical bills we have transactional data to automate much of the hard work. This includes: specifying procedure codes; a 12-month rolling total of procedures undertaken in each hospital; a breakdown by patient age-group and how long since the last procedure was undertaken.

If you have a profile on The PPR, you already benefit from the ability to control and update your practice information in one place so you can ensure insurers and hospitals with whom you have a relationship with have accurate data. This will become ever more important as MPAF is implemented across the sector because hospitals will require more information, more frequently. Healthcode’s decision to align The PPR with MPAF requirements and adopt common data standards, means relevant data can be efficiently collected and shared when appropriate, saving time and effort for all concerned.