New contract must work for practices, Minister tells MPs

New contract must work for practices, Minister tells MPs
Speaking at a meeting of MPs at Westminster (All Party Parliamentary Group for Dentistry), Health Minister Earl Howe stressed that it was important that any new dental contract in England must work for dental practices and support their functioning as businesses. It must also support better access and health outcomes for patients and be cost effective, he said.

The BDA has reported that he was outlining the Government’s view of the progress of the pilots for new arrangements. He said he was “chuffed” with the way it had been embraced by the profession. The pilots had recently entered a second phase, he said, with an extra 20 sites being added to the 70 practices already piloting new arrangements. The primary purpose of this phase is to refine the operation of the care pathways, he explained, adding that elements of a new system, rather than a completed new system, are being tested.

The Minister also heralded the early progress of the new NHS arrangements in regard to dentistry, expressing confidence in the placing of responsibility for all NHS dental care with NHS England and the structuring of the team responsible for dental public health at Public Health England.

The Minister also referred to ongoing work by NHS England on reviews of oral surgery and dental care for vulnerable and hard-to-reach patients. A task group looking at the latter issue had met for the first time, he said.

Further information about the pilots and dentistry’s place in the new NHS architecture are available on the BDA website.


You need to be logged in to leave comments.
0
0
0
s2sdefault

Please do not re-register if you have forgotten your details,
follow the links above to recover your password &/or username.
If you cannot access your email account, please contact us.

Mastodon Mastodon