Q: OB004 eligible patients who have been referred to weight management support within 90 days of BMI recorded. We have patients who had a BMI recorded in February but due to the searches only just being available we were not able to refer the patients in the allocated time frame. How can we mitigate against this?
A: The indicator actually refers to patients that have had a high BMI in the current QOF year – currently clinical systems will look back 12 months, which is why the patient is still included. If the patient had their BMI recorded on 10th March 2026, they will fall off 10th March 2027 essentially (or if you are working in year end mode, they will not be included). Patients where you miss the 90 day deadline, if you record an updated BMI for this patient, they will effectively start again, so you will then have 90 days from this point to offer the patient a referral for weight management support. Once you achieved for a patient, so say you recorded a high BMI in May and they have a referral code/declined referral code added within 90 days, and then you add on another high BMI in October, because you have already achieved for this patient, they do not go back into the pot again. They only go back into the pot if you haven’t already recorded all elements with the timeframes.
Q: How do we exclude a patient from the Obesity domain. We have a patient in a care home, and the GP has confirmed the intervention is not appropriate.
A: Patients unsuitable for OB004, our recommendation would be “Unsuitable for weight management programme (finding)” or top level PCA code “Excepted from obesity quality indicators – patient unsuitable (finding)” will exclude from all obesity indicators.
Q: What happens if there are no suitable weight management services available?
A: As services are available both in person and online nationally, in additional to local services, it is not expected patients would not be able to access services. However, there is a weight management service not available PCA code available.
Q: What is behavioural support for OB005?
A: This support is now available for any patient where general practice is prescribing weight loss medication. Practices should contact their local provider directly for details on how to refer patients or contact their ICB commissioner (England.healthier-you@nhs.net). Local provider details:
Insight Members – available to download is a complete list of codes including PCA codes for each of the obesity indicators – QOF & ENHANCED SERVICES GENERAL
