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New contract, new beginning?
11th Jan 2006
By Paul Mendlesohn, CODE chief executive. Without doubt the new contract is challenging. Some practices have decided to leave the NHS altogether whilst many feel they don’t have that choice. Others are taking the suck it and see approach, leaving their options open until it’s all panned out. Most articles have pointed out the pitfalls of the forthcoming changes that are forcing us to the move away from fee per item, so I’d like to explore if there’s a positive side. In the patient’s mind, ‘access’ has become The big issue, whether there’s a local shortage or not. This fear is attributable more to the media than finding an NHS dentist. Negative press towards dentists continues, it may be my imagination but is there a correlation between the Government making changes to NHS dentistry against the profession’s will and the number of ‘smear campaigns’ against dentists? Fortunately for us, any publicity whether bad or good raises awareness, and in a sense puts dentistry on the agenda, which in turn puts dentists in a more powerful position. If we decide to go private now, most patients will have heard of the issues even if they don’t agree with them. So when offering them a dental plan – such as CODEplan, the access element of the plan has become a real incentive to join up. For too long the shortage of associates (performers) have forced practice owners to pay them uneconomic percentages of treatment fees, but this may soon change. If you are working at a practice now and you move with it into nGDS, you would probably expect a similar percentage of the monthly gross payments as you are receiving for fee per item. But in a few years time the NHS income to the practice may become divorced from the performer’s actual pay and this is only fair. Percentages would become more economically viable and the days of the ‘high grossing’ NHS associate would be over. Even the shortage of associates could improve. As more practices go private and the overall value of treatment increases, the volume will decrease, a smaller dental workforce will be needed to provide the necessary cover. In the end I believe that the NHS will provide a core dental service to the patients who need it most, children, older people and those who are disadvantaged. The responsibility and guilt for the transition from the current position of offering extensive treatment to all to the core service, is likely to be borne by the profession; despite the fact that these changes are the result of Government policy and economic pressures. Nevertheless the need for dentistry is unlikely to evaporate and there just aren’t enough dentists to fulfil it. So long as we take the time to plan our goals and choose a future, there are countless exciting opportunities for dentists both within and without the NHS, although the transitional period may be bumpy. For information on creating provider/performer agreements for the nGDS see www.CODEuk.com/contracts or call 01409 254 354.
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