Dentistry News | Dental Jobs | Dentist Forum | CPD Education
Dental news |
 |
RSS Feed | View by: Most Recent | Most Popular | Most Discussed |
PCTs jump the gun over NHS dental contract
9th Sep 2009
Evidence of a shock new NHS dental contract that could cause the biggest upheaval to the profession since the 2006 reforms has been uncovered.
The access programme contract, ostensibly in draft form, appears to have been released ahead of schedule by several PCTs across the country as part of their tendering process.
It bears the hallmarks of Mike Warburton's access team but also includes several references to Professor Steele's report, setting aside measures – and payments – for quality in a list of ‘key
performance indicators'.
Practice payments will be overhauled under the proposals, with practices only receiving half their agreed payments each month, the remainder being paid in quarterly lump sums. The reliance on UDA as the sole measure of performance has gone, replaced by a combination of quality, access, and UDA measurements.
However, there are serious concerns over the structure of the new agreement, not least its implementation of quality measures and the lack of real piloting demanded by the Steele report.
Dentistry understands that up to 150 of these contracts could be rolled out over the next 18 months. It has already surfaced as far apart as Lincolnshire, Devon, and the north east.
One source slammed the new document for being one-sided and poorly conceived, describing it as ‘a myriad of quality measures bolted onto the UDA system and dropped into a GP contract'.
The new focus on quality is seen as incompatible with the demands of the UDA in its current form, prompting fears that concentrating on one area will necessarily see performance in the other drop.
The perceived change in attitude from the access team – from promising to engage with
the profession to the sudden appearance of this new document – has also drawn criticism.
Dr John Milne, chair of the BDA's General Dental Practice Committee, backed up the fears over the contract's premature release and adoption.
He said: ‘The BDA has seen a draft version of a dental access contract that is being developed by the Department of Health. The version we have seen is not, in our opinion, fit for purpose.
‘We are lobbying the Department hard for a number of significant changes to its content. It is important that they take on board the profession's concerns and make the appropriate
amendments.
‘Unfortunately, the draft has been released by a number of primary care trusts. As it stands, we do not believe the contract is suitable and are advising members not to sign it.
‘We also believe that it is important that this draft contract does not become seen as a
substitute for developing the work of Professor Steele's review and will continue to push hard for progress on consulting on and piloting his recommendations.'
Chief dental officer for England Barry Cockcroft said: ‘This contract is being developed by the Department's dental access programme who are working with many PCTs across the country to support them procuring brand new services.
‘In developing this contract template, the access team has been keen to share drafts with stakeholders and respond to their feedback. The access team has written to the NHS pointing out that this is work in progress and asking them to share it with stakeholders in order to get
feedback but also to point out that the version they have at the moment is not the final version.
‘We are aware that an early draft of the contract has been posted... and can confirm that we have already made significant changes to the working draft.
‘The access team have held several meetings with the British Dental Association regarding development of this contract and further meetings are planned.
‘The new access contract does incorporate some of the recommendations of the Steele review but in terms of piloting the Steele recommendations much more significant work will be undertaken with existing providers.
‘We intend to robustly pilot potential changes with existing providers, we have had many expressions of interest from dentists and PCTs to be involved in piloting and we are developing a programme of initiating and evaluating pilots, involving stakeholders as fully as possible.'
Author
Guy Hiscott
Rate this story
Comments
