The allocation of general practice funding is well established nationally; however, there is currently no national guidance on how to allocate discretionary additional funds equitably. Often, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) allocate funding per head of population, rather than considering inequalities and specific population needs.
To address this, we present a practical tool for ICBs in England: the Extra Funding Allocation Inequality Tool (eFIT). This software enables ICBs to allocate extra funding to general practices based on socio-economic inequalities and local needs.
The eFIT tool is user-friendly and allows ICB managers to easily calculate different funding distribution scenarios, taking into consideration the health data associated with the interventions they aim to roll out.
Under the tool, you’ll find step-by-step guidelines on how to use it, accompanied by a comprehensive video tutorial.
Video guide to using eFIT
Guidelines for using the eFIT tool
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Getting started with eFIT
Getting started with eFIT
1. Select Your ICB
Choose Your ICB: From the dropdown menu, select your specific Integrated Care Board.
2. Enter funding and parameters
Insert funding amount: Input the total amount of discretionary funding available.
Specify target demographics: Specify the population group you intend to support.
Select health indicators: Choose up to three options from a list of publicly available health indicators, or upload your own dataset (see below).
Set indicator weights: Assign weights adding up to 100% to different health indicators selected.
3. Calculate the Allocation
Calculate funding distribution: Hit the ‘Calculate’ button to generate funding allocation results instantaneously.
Review the allocation: View the allocation for each general practice displayed in a table format.
The table will summarise for each GP practice the population selected, the health indicators, the total allocation, and the allocation per patient.
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How to upload your own indicators
How to upload your own indicators
To upload your own indicators all you need is a CSV file with two columns, the first containing the GP code, and the second with the value of that indicator. Click on the ‘Upload your own file’ box and drag and drop your file into the box.
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Detailed analysis and comparison
Detailed analysis and comparison
Show more details
Detailed contribution: Use the ‘Show more detail’ functionality to see how each individual health indicator contributes to the final allocation.
See the impact of the eFIT tool
Click on the box at the base of the table/chart to compare the differences in allocation between the eFIT formula and the traditional ‘weighted population’ formula.
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Downloading and visualizing data
Downloading and visualizing data
Download allocation data
Export results: Download the allocation table in a CSV/XLSL format.
Visualise allocation scenarios
Visualise data: Use the tool’s charting features to visualize the funding distribution.
Adjust parameters in real-time: Modify parameters, or exclude specific GP practices from the analysis, for real-time scenario analysis.