Terms of use
Provider: Practice Atlas Ltd, an independent tool built by an NHS primary care digital lead. Service: Practice Atlas, at practiceatlas.org. Status: closed beta, free while in beta. Contact: support@practiceatlas.org. Last updated: 11 Aug 2026.
1. What the Service is, and what it is not
Practice Atlas is a decision-support tool for incentive-scheme and operational work in general practice. It covers the national QOF, local incentive schemes (LES) and directed enhanced services (DES), presenting each scheme's requirements in plain English and providing search definitions for use in the practice's own clinical system (EMIS). Alongside those it offers operational tools: reading, building and forecasting against searches, income assurance, recalls and rota planning.
Coverage varies by scheme. QOF is the settled core; local and directed scheme content is provided for named regions and is marked in the Service where it is still in beta.
The Service does not provide medical advice and does not replace clinical judgement. Nothing it shows is a direction to treat, recall, code or not code any patient. Decisions about patient care remain entirely with the treating clinician and the practice.
The Service is not a medical device and is not intended to be used as one.
2. Beta status: verify before you rely on it
The Service is a closed beta, provided as-is. The practice and its clinicians are responsible for verifying any output before acting on it, including search results run in your own clinical system, forecasts, dates, "due" indications and anything that feeds a payment claim.
The Service is deliberately built so that verification is practical, not theoretical: every search can be read end-to-end in the X-Ray view. Its population logic, code lists and date windows are displayed in full, in plain language, before you choose to rely on it. Searches you build in the Forge are editable and downloadable, and belong to your workflow, not ours. Because you can review the logic, the responsibility for choosing to act on it sits with you.
If an output looks wrong, do not act on it; tell us at support@practiceatlas.org so it can be fixed for everyone.
3. Basis of the searches
The search definitions derive from NHS England's published QOF business rules (version 51) for the relevant year, and follow those rules 1:1, line by line. Two things bound that claim, and we state both rather than leave them to be discovered.
The only knowing divergences from the published rules are where a rule is impossible to follow as written, or where the clinical system's own code content has not yet caught up with the rules. Every such divergence is adjudicated by a person, never applied silently, and recorded as a ledgered calculation you can read in the Service before you rely on the affected search (see the divergence ledger on the Searches page).
Following the rules faithfully is not the same as matching what is extracted for payment. NHS England calculates payment from its own central extraction, which does not use the search system inside your clinical system, and some parts of the rules cannot be expressed there at all. A search can therefore be faithful to the published rules and still differ from what is extracted. Section 4 states the consequence.
Where a search deliberately differs from the published rules or from other commercial implementations, the divergence is documented and reviewable within the Service. QOF rules change: we aim to keep the Service current with published rule releases, but you are responsible for confirming that a search reflects the rules in force at the time you use it.
4. No warranty of income or payment outcomes
The Service provides estimates, forecasts and work-prioritisation views. We do not warrant, guarantee or promise any QOF achievement, points, payment or income outcome. Actual payment depends on your data, your coding, your clinical system's calculations, and the commissioner's own assessment, none of which we control. Forecast figures are planning aids only and must not be treated as a statement of entitlement.
5. Data: what runs where, and what we hold
The Service runs in your browser. The page you unlock is processed on your own device. No patient data is uploaded to us, and we hold none. Searches downloaded from the Service run inside your practice's own clinical system; patient data stays there at all times. When you build or edit a search, the search logic (the definition, never patient data) is compiled by our UK-hosted service. If you use the drafting assistant in the search builder (a beta feature available to signed-in users), the description you type is sent to Microsoft's Azure OpenAI service to return a draft; it describes rules rather than patients, and we retain none of it. When the Service looks up a clinical code, the search term alone is sent from our server to the NHS England Terminology Server; nothing about any patient is involved, and your practice's browser never contacts it directly. The only personal data connected with the Service is your account data (the email address you register with and sign-in records), processed for access control via our authentication provider.
What we do with that account data, your rights over it and how to complain are set out in the privacy notice. If something we have done with personal data concerns you, tell us at support@practiceatlas.org: we will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you what we are doing about it. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at any time, and you do not have to come to us first.
6. Accounts and access
Accounts are personal to the named individual and must not be shared; do not disclose your password or pass on the unlocked page. Access is by approval and approval is revocable at any time, including without notice, at the provider's discretion. You must not attempt to extract, copy, redistribute or commercially exploit the Service's content, search logic or code beyond the normal use described in section 1.
7. Liability
The Service is provided as-is, without warranty, during the beta. Consistent with sections 1–4: we are not liable for clinical decisions, for QOF or other income shortfalls, or for losses arising from outputs the practice did not verify. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
8. Changes · 9. Governing law
The Service is under active development; features may change or be withdrawn. These beta terms will be replaced by formal terms before general release; material changes will be shown on this page, and continued use after a change means acceptance. These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, with exclusive jurisdiction in its courts.