NHS announces first changes to the dental contract for 16 years
The NHS has announced major changes to the dental contract for the first time in over 16 years.
The government asked NHS England to take the lead on the next phase of modernising the NHS dental contract in March 2021. For the past 12 months, contract negotiations and talks between NHS staff, frontline dental professionals and patients have taken place, resulting in a new and improved agreement.
The NHS has now published the outcome of the 2022/2023 Dental Contract Negotiations, which include a host of changes designed to improve patient access, address issues raised by dental workers and maximise NHS resources.
Among the key changes is the introduction of a minimum UDA (unit of dental activity) value. There will also be enhanced UDAs to better support patients with complex or additional needs. The contract will also seek to eliminate some of the barriers and administrative processes, which prevent dental professionals from “operating within their full scope of practice” and enable dental therapists, nurses and dental hygienists to offer more services. The NHS will also aim to provide patients with more information about dental services and NICE (National Institute for Health Care and Excellence) recall.
Under new contract guidelines, dentists will be paid more for complex services and dental therapists will be able to treat NHS patients without supervision, providing services, such as fillings, preventative treatment and sealants.
Chief dental officer for England, Sara Hurley, said that the contract changes “address many of the challenges voiced by frontline dental teams and will make a real difference to patients.” There has been “a shift in the emphasis of financial reward and a re-orientation of clinical activity to those patients that need it most,” Ms Hurley added, which will improve access to NHS dental care and provide additional support for “valued dental teams.” Ms Hurley stated that this is the start of the process. In the coming months, the NHS will build on the changes to “undertake further reform.”
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