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Dental pilots will boost preventive care

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Pilots for a new dental contract that will begin this month will boost preventive care and increase access for children, Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley MP said yesterday (12 July 2011).

Speaking at Health Questions in the House of Commons, Mr Lansley told MPs that the government would build on an increase in the overall number of patients visiting NHS dentists.

He also noted the profession's support for the broad thrust of the reforms, quoting General Dental Practice Committee chair, John Milne's, comments on the pilots concentrating on the principles of quality of care and the continuing care relationship between practitioners and patients.

Mr Lansley also defended the government's intention to shift the commissioning of dental care from primary care trusts to the National Commissioning Board, arguing that the move will mean greater consistency.

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Got a phone call from a friend working in the first practice in Surry going "live" with the pilots. First week. 30 minutes app. for Exam. A lot of Box ticking OH ... Etc on the computer program (Softw. Of Excellence). The principals recieved a text msg by 11.am informing him that Associate nr 1 just took 5 minutes to thick all the boxes, associate nr 2 spent 15 minutes on a 30 min. app. etc............. Talk about Big Brother and micro managing. (Spyware Of Excellence ! ) The ultimate goal of these pilots is to cut the funding even further as the government thinks that the Nectar Point (UDA) system is too expensive and easily manipulated.

Posted by Expat 14/7/11 at 08:49

Here we go on again...its circus time...i like the way lansley quotes john milne's comments. Truth is, like you say expat, 2014, funding will be cut and this will be passed onto associates. All other parts of budget have experienced cuts in funding - education etc, healthcare is no different.

Posted by steve 14/7/11 at 09:13

you can't blame the govt-they want as much as they can get for as little as it costs is one way of looking at it.If dentists are so insecure in their own business and dental abilities that they sign up to this crap then I say stop whinging about it.Every time the profession gives in to these contracts the more the govt will push for more for less. At what point these dentists finally realise this point I have no idea.If you really want to do nhs get salaried and work for the govt.They practically own your practice anyway which they stole with the last contract.Its as steve says its going to get worse not better.

Posted by gordie 14/7/11 at 12:53

'drop the pilot - smell my perfume....'
The problem is, if you are a government with a (very!) limited amount of actual dosh - that perfume will smell very much like 5h1te.
FFS!
What, exactly, does it take to convince dentists to just say 'go forth and multiply'?!
I mean, really. If you you seriously believe any of this bullsmoke from the politicians and Bazza - you need your head testing.
I think we in our practice will be fairly busy - signing on new patients as this NHS nonsense collapses in short order.


--This post was last edited on 17/7/11 at 06:05--

Posted by docholliday 16/7/11 at 20:58

The new pilots seem to assume that the provider is going to have ethics and not push associates to meet requirements to meet profit margins and it is very simple to tick a box without actually doing what the question asks.It all sounds familiar! I could be mad but did`nt the old pre 2006 work better.Anyhow what do i know, onlt being doing the job for 25 years.

Posted by bonobo5 18/7/11 at 14:09

bonobo5 - 'Ethics' - as in, east of Hertfordshire, south of Suffolk? ;-)

Posted by docholliday 18/7/11 at 15:12

bonobo5
You are right. However one the ideas is to start to use more Dental Hyg. + Dental therapists within this pilot scheme and once the new "Pathways for care" has been established. The smaller practices with a small NHS contract will most probably loose their "Nectar point" contract (or decide that it is not worth it and abandon the new system)
It will be hard for many associates dentists (unless they decide to set up private / independent practices) Most large NHS practices will employ more Dental hyg. and therapists. There is already a debate about direct access to their services. They are "lobbying" the GDC for it. (Cameron and co will be more than happy for a scenario like that) 1300 newly qualified Dentist this year and only 900-950 VT places and still an influx of foreign trained dentists into the UK. You figure out the rest.

Posted by Expat 18/7/11 at 15:10

expat-on the ball as usual. What I don't understand is why any newly qualified today would touch vt with a barge pole.Its not compulsory even if you decide to work in the nhs-to get a number you only have to show equivalence-ie get enough cpd points of certain courses fill in some forms, work as an assistant,on a %,earn more money. Then if you want to de-skill youself and earn less get a "performer" number,or... stuff the nhs and stay private.

Posted by gordie 20/7/11 at 08:41

Thanks Gordie. You are absolutely right. Can you work as an assistant post 2006 without doing VT? I thought all the PCT's demand a performer number.
I am 100% sure the pilots will fail their objectives. As long as the patients in this country are being fooled to belive that they are getting high quality Dental treatment by paying peanuts (£47 for a molar RCT ! ) nothing will change. The way forward is to abandon the sinking ship of NHS dentistry as you say.

Posted by Expat 20/7/11 at 21:14

could be expat -I stopped being a vt trainer prior to that-stuck my head above the parapet and suggested a particularly "mr bean" type dentist might actually need more training before being let loose any more on the public. It went down badly as the training scheme had no mechanism for failing vts and they were scared of being sued by the dentist

Posted by gordie 21/7/11 at 11:57