Uproar over new dental contract proposals
The British Dental Association has come out in opposition of the new drafts of the contract, as it believes it will create payment delays for NHS work.
This rejection could lead to thousands of people being left without an NHS dentist.
The new draft contract is being billed as an attempt by the government to improve patient access to NHS dentistry but the British Dental Association (BDA) believe it will have the opposite effect.
Three years ago a dental contract was drafted with the same purpose but it has led to hundreds of dentists resigning from NHS work.
The new system would require dentists to follow a complex set of key performance indicators, which add to the dentists’ work load as no computer program has been developed to tackle the scheme.
A source told The Daily Mail the new contract would add more problems to the ones caused by the previous contract.
He added that the new contract had been developed by pen-pushers who had no experience of how a dental service is actually run.
It has been suggested that certain Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are asking dentists to sign the new contract. However, if dentists refuse to sign many patients could be left without NHS care or treatment of any kind.
The BDA has claimed that the Department of Health (DoH) spent six months developing the contract completely independently from the dental profession and openly told BDA members not to sign the contract
The DoH has said it will not stop PCTs using the contract and did not deny that one day it maybe imposed.
Dr John Milne, of the BDA, said that the association were lobbying the DoH for significant changes to the content of the contract, as it was not fit in its current state.
Barry Cockcroft, Chief Dental Officer with the DoH, said the department would be working with the BDA and the NHS to develop the contract and that many PCTs had expressed interest in piloting the contract.
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