Online and video consultation undertaken in general practice data collection

The Online Consultation / Video Consultation (OC/VC) extended data collection goal is to support understanding of demand and activity in general practice. The capture of all OC/VC data in Primary Care will ensure practices are paid for activity, and to demonstrate the delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan objectives. Accurate and timely capture of this data supports GP practices and local commissioners to plan and provide implementation support, as well as make more informed procurement decisions. Moreover, nationally it will help with understanding usage and shaping future policy.

The collection of OC/VC data will allow practices and PCNs that choose to participate in the Investment and Impact Fund (IIF) to understand their position in relation to the IIF indicator for using online consultation systems and to receive payment when services are delivered. Data for this indicator will also be published alongside other payment indicator data.

The OC/VC data specification outlines the data items we wish to collect this covers the following:

• data items that system suppliers have already provided in previous collections
• data items previously not collected
• items that are for future consideration

The data collection process comes directly from online and video consultation system suppliers and is shared automatically with NHS England on a weekly basis to enable understanding of online consultation activity nationally, as well as use for the IIF OC/VC payment indicator. The collection replaces the previous manual daily submissions methods. The OC/VC data may be used to incentivise and reward GP practices.

The OC/VC data can be submitted in any of the following file formats:

• JSON
• XML
• CSV

Use the content in this release for OC/VC bulk submission via CSV files.

The submission of OC/VC data is to be made through the Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH). Find out about the MESH types available. 

You will need a MESH mailbox account and this can be requested using the online form.

To authenticate your secure MESH mailbox, you will need to hold a certificate.

For additional technical documentation email: nhsdigital.ocvchelpline@nhs.net.

The legal basis for this collection is:

254(1), (3) and (6), section 260, section 261(2)(e) and section 304(9), (10) and (12) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. 

For further information about this collection, email: nhsdigital.ocvchelpline@nhs.net.

To enable us to deal with your enquiry effectively please can you make sure you include the following information when you contact us:

• organisation name
• MESH mailbox
• environment (test or production)
• date and time of submission
• number of files submitted
• description of the issue