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NHS dental system reform

In March 2021 NHS England were asked by the government to lead on the next stages of NHS dental system reform. After 12 months of engagement with stakeholders and the dental profession NHS England have announced the next stages of the dental system reform programme.

Wendy Crew
Wendy Crew

At the outset six aims were agreed when considering what a reformed dental system should bring. They were:

  • Be designed with the support of the profession
  • Improve oral health outcomes
  • Increase incentives to undertake preventative dentistry, prioritise evidence-based care for patients with the most needs and reduce incentives to deliver care that is of low clinical value
  • Improve patient access to NHS care, with a specific focus on addressing inequalities, particularly deprivation and ethnicity
  • Demonstrate that patients are not having to pay privately for dental care that was previously commissioned NHS dental care
  • Be affordable within NHS resources made available by Government, including taking account of dental charge income.

To achieve these aims changes in the following six areas will be implemented in 2022/23. The highlights of these are:

  • Introduction of enhanced units of dental activity (UDA) to support higher needs patients, recognising the range of different treatment options currently remunerated under Band 2
  • Improvement in the monitoring of and adherence to personalised recall intervals
  • Establishing a new minimum indicative UDA value
  • Addressing misunderstandings around use of skill mix in NHS dental care, whilst removing some of the administrative barriers preventing dental care professionals from operating within their full scope of practice
  • Taking steps to maximise access from existing NHS resources, including through funding practices to deliver more activity in year, where affordable
  • Improving information for patients by requiring more regular updating of the directory of services.

Full details of the reform can be found at https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/first-stage-of-dental-reform

Last Updated on 25 July 2022