Any Qualified Provider

Key principles of an Any Qualified Provider approach.

The following principles govern an AQP approach to contracting for healthcare services:

• Providers qualify and register to provide services via an assurance process that tests providers’ fitness to offer NHS-funded services.
•  Commissioners set local pathways and referral protocols which providers must accept.
•  Referring clinicians offer patients a choice of qualified providers for the service being referred to.
•  Competition is based on quality, not price. Providers are paid a fixed price determined by a national or local tariff.

For a list of NHS Gloucestershire’s AQP procurement schemes, please see current procurements.