The Elective Recovery Fund (ERF) incentivises NHS systems (ICBs) to clear existing referral backlogs and minimise new referrals that could be treated elsewhere.
Eligibility for funding through the ERF is automatically measured using your e-RS referral data and EROC (Elective Recovery Outpatient Collections) Advice & Guidance (A&G) data that you are already submitting.
The latest ERF technical guidance 2024/2025 highlights two types of activities you are rewarded for:
- First, seeing more outpatients (in-person or virtually)
- Second, diverting “new” patients from hospital through A&G
Both of these activities need to exceed a target of approximately 107% against the 2019/2020 activity baseline.
Using A&G to claim
A&G is a straightforward target to aim for, as volumes have grown significantly since 2019/2020. For every qualifying unit of activity over the volume of A&G that your area did in 2019/2020, the ICB will receive an average first outpatient tariff.
Patients diverted away from hospital through A&G attract a tariff of £225, but if your monthly A&G data reporting to EROC is falling through the cracks, you could be missing out.
To claim the tariff, your A&G needs:
- To have resulted in a patient avoiding an elective referral; and
- The case must be closed by the clinician.
Easy A&G through Consultant Connect
As the UK’s most used clinician-to-clinician A&G service Consultant Connect delivers telephone and messaging A&G at scale:
- All telephone A&G claims are automatically closed at the end of each call, meaning there is no risk of an advice episode being left open and ineligible
- All written A&G through Consultant Connect is closed as a result of our workflow design, ensuring no loss of case tariffs
- Where case outcomes have not been left by clinicians, the cases can be audited and retrospectively have an outcome assigned to them by your clinicians or ours
- We integrate with NHS EROC reporting meaning all A&G activity is automatically submitted to EROC each month, removing the reporting burden from you
Example calculations
Over 2 million A&G transactions have been processed through our service, with 70% of these leading to diverted pathways.
Monthly ERF eligibility for a “typical” area:
- A “typical” area might receive 1,000 calls a month across all elective specialties
- If 70% of these avoid a referral at a tariff of £225, that system will be eligible for £157.5k that month
Monthly ERF eligibility for a “smaller” area:
- A “smaller” area might receive 500 calls a month across all elective specialties
- If 70% of these avoid a referral at a tariff of £225, that system will be eligible for £78.7k that month
Whether your system already has a Consultant Connect A&G project in place or not, call us on 01865 261 467 or email info@consultantconnect.org.uk to discuss how we can help unlock your ERF money.
Related materials:
