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New contract is a shambles

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A massive 99% of dentists are experiencing problems with the new contract, according to a new survey carried out by the British Dental Association (BDA). Practitioners across England and Wales are struggling to make sense of the new arrangements for NHS dentistry, introduced today. In the survey, 90% of the local dental committees that responded said that dentists in their area were experiencing difficulties over the details of the contracts. Many reported problems with the calculation of the value of their new contract, which is based on the income practices generated from October 2004 to September 2005. Some 45% of local dental committees that responded to the survey reported that adjustments to contract values to take into consideration ‘atypical’ years – for example, if a dentist was on maternity leave or left the practice last year – were not being taken into account by their primary care trusts (PCTs). Lester Ellman, Chair of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, said: ‘The chaos surrounding the introduction of the changes to NHS dentistry is bad news for dentists and their patients. We don’t believe the new contract will improve patient care or access to NHS dentistry, and we also believe it’s been introduced in a shambolic way. Dentists are telling us they can’t plan for the future because their local PCTs can’t tell them how much funding is going to be available. The situation is crazy, and puts the profession in an impossible position, increasing the confusion and uncertainty over the future of NHS dentistry.’

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Dear Sir,
Contract values are based on a historical pattern of treatment for a test period of twelve months.
The premis of new contract valuation is based on repeating an identical treatment pattern for subsequent periods after the new contract.
The Governments motivation is to demand NICE guidelines to be enforced which is implying greater check up intervals than historic patterns.
This fact alone nullifies the premis of repeated historic treatment profiles and hence the premis on which the contract value is calculated.
Barry Cockroft has stated in Portsmouth his desire to end RECYCLING of patients-something we as business owners refer to as on going client committment.
It seems obvious that the new contract is a desperate attempt to strong arm practices into seeing new patients who have become now an uneconomic and financially damaging prospect for practices and it is this fact that will guarantee access to NHS care will worsen rapidly.
What businessperson in their right mind would accept a limited fund of money for a limitless liability.
This is now the equation one has to take into account when considering accepting a new patient for treatment under the umbrella of the new contract.

Posted by ANDREW SHEEHAN 26/4/06