Time limited NHS contracts are on the table

Time limited NHS contracts are on the table
The Westminster Health Forum seminar debated whether the days of NHS contracts which were not time limited were numbered. Tony Donaldson, of the Office of Fair Trading said that dentists should not expect ‘indefinite’ contracts. But Martin Fallowfield chair of the BDA PEC vigorously opposed short term contracts, pointing out that it was dentists, not Government, that put capital into practices.

Although the symposium was entitled ‘towards the new dental contract’, it shed little light on what its final shape would be. John Milne, chair of the GDPC said he was 'positive about the direction of travel', but that there was 'still a lot we don't know'.

Mark Pennington, a lecturer in health economics, appeared unaware that patients made a sizeable financial contribution in the form of charges as he made no mention of them in his short presentation. Dentists called for clarity in what was available under NHS and what privately. There were suggestions that the new contract would have to be a mix of capitation and fee for item, especially in the area of lab-based treatments.

Summing up Barry Cockcroft, who announced himself as CDO both for Department of Health and NHS England as well as dental education, summed up the next steps in Government policy. The aim was to provide ‘access to quality services’ and ‘improving oral health’ NHS dentistry would remain a commissioned service with a single operating model. He hinted that there might be a ‘phased transition’ to the new contract.


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