Your NHS dentistry and oral health update

19 June 2023 (Issue 63)

An update from Ali Sparke and Sara Hurley

Dear colleague,

Today we have published year end guidance for reconciliation of GDS/PDS contracts for 2022/23. Our letter outlines that we have set a revised lower performance tolerance of 90% for contractors delivering mandatory services, rather than the contract tolerance level of 96%, to support practices during the ongoing recovery of dental services and to maximise access for patients. This will be for 2022/23 only and seeks to support contractors by recognising that pandemic measures continued to affect capacity for many practices in the early part of 2022/23.

This means that any un-delivered activity between 90% to 100% of that contracted will be carried forward into 2023/24 contract year. Where 90% of the total annual contract activity has not been delivered, financial recovery will apply as normal.

We are asking that contractors who do not wish to take up this offer notify their commissioner within 28 days of receipt of their year-end letter.

The full year income protection threshold for practices exiting the prototype programme remains unchanged at 90% and, in line with other contracts, contractors will be allowed to carry forward undelivered activity between 80% to 90% with no loss of income.

Orthodontic services have been working to usual contracting arrangements since 1 April 2022 and the performance tolerance remains unchanged.

May we take this opportunity to thank you for your hard work and commitment in continuing to maintain and deliver high quality dental care for patients.

With best wishes,

Ali and Sara

GDC v Williams Court of Appeal Judgement

Today NHS England and Department of Health and Social Care have published a short statement responding to this judgement. We continue to work on the wider implications of this judgement and will issue further guidance in due course. However, in the interim we continue to remind colleagues that the ruling does not change the principle that patients should be able to receive clinically necessary treatment needed to keep their mouth, teeth and gums health and free of pain through NHS dental treatment. Decisions about which treatment is appropriate should be based on clinical assessment and discussions with the patient.

Clinical Standard for dental specialties – Orthodontics

This standard has been produced to promote consistent delivery and quality of specialist orthodontic care provision to patients in England to ensure that resources invested by the NHS in specialist care is used in the most effective way, provide the best possible quality and quantity of care for patients, and meet need rather than serve demand.

NHS England » Clinical standard to dental specialties – orthodontics

Falsified Medical Oxygen – Important Checks Required

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) has advised us that falsified medical oxygen has been circulating in a number of dental practices in the UK. The source of this supply has been identified.

An assessment of risk to public health and patient safety has been completed and the risk was found to be low. A criminal investigation into the company that supplied this stock is ongoing. The falsified product in circulation bears this labelling: Medical Oxygen B.P PL No 04280/001 MEDIGAS OXYGEN

All dental practices should check their oxygen supplies and ensure that they have not been supplied with this product. If you find evidence that any of your oxygen is labelled as shown above, stop using it and replace it with legitimate stock.

If you have been supplied with this product, please also notify MHRA Senior Criminal Enforcement Officer Mark Ling via email.

All healthcare professionals must ensure that medical oxygen supplies are procured only from authorised and licensed manufacturers or from authorised wholesale dealers of medical oxygen. It is vital that you check that your practice suppliers are authorised and licensed by the MHRA. Your supplier should have a Wholesale Dealer’s Authority, which is supplied by the MHRA.

NHS England Menopause Programme Dental Webinar

A recorded PowerPoint webinar for the oral health team to watch together about menopause and the Dental Workforce, by Suzanne Banks CBE, Clinical Programme Lead, NHS England Menopause Programme.

Focus on elective recovery for children and young people (CYP)

NHS England’s Elective Recovery programme and the Children and Young People’s Transformation programme with support from Getting It Right First Time (GiRFT) are running a seven-week focus on elective recovery for children and young people (CYP).

A series of weekly webinars and round tables is being held from 13 June to 31 July, bringing together national and local leads to set out the specific challenges for recovery of elective activity for CYP, share provider-led initiatives for tackling paediatric waiting lists and identify priority actions to accelerate progress.

The Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care (February 2022) referenced the impact that long waits for planned care can have on the development of children and young people (CYP) and their ability to access education and lead full and active lives.

To ensure the recovery of paediatric services keeps pace with the recovery of adult elective care, regions, systems and providers have been asked to have recovery plans in place to return CYP activity levels to a minimum of 2019/20 rates (dependent on previous delivery and baselines). A best practice toolkit has also been developed to support this.

Register for the webinars and round table discussions using the links below:

• Dental roundtable discussion: 21 June, 10am to 12pm
• ENT roundtable discussion: 26 June, 1pm to 3pm
• Evidence based interventions roundtable discussion: 5 July, 10am to 12pm
• Outpatients roundtable discussion: 11 July, 2.30pm to 4.30pm
• Maximising theatre utilisation roundtable discussion: 17 July, 1pm to 3pm
• Waiting list validation and prioritisation roundtable discussion: 26 July, 10am to 12pm
• Data roundtable discussion: 31 July, 1pm to 3pm

You can find more information on the  CYP Elective Recovery FutureNHS page

NHS 75th Birthday

On Wednesday 5 July the NHS marks 75 years of service and the organisation and its partners will celebrate this milestone by showcasing the best of the NHS and encouraging as many people as possible to join in with NHS75 activities. The NHS75 communications toolkit can be downloaded from the CommsLink page which also contains the NHS75 mark and guidelines on its use, which NHS organisations are encouraged to use. Keep up to date with all the latest news on NHS75 at www.england.nhs.uk/nhsbirthday

These webpages list the events planned, suggestions on how to get involved including the NHS1000 miles challenge, volunteering, supporting NHS charities and joining the NHS Organ Donor Register. We also want to receive more of Your NHS Stories – which demonstrate the talent, dedication and diversity of the NHS workforce. If you’d like contribute a staff profile from your organisation for this webpage, using the standard questions shown, please send it with a photo of the staff member to england.nhs75@nhs.net

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Recent dentistry and oral health bulletins 

Previous bulletins can be accessed by clicking on the links below:

Special focus bulletins 

Chief Dental Officer Sara Hurley and the NHS team regularly produce 'special focus bulletins' on clinical priorities and key aspects of patient care. These bulletins summarise the key information dental teams need to know and act as a refresher, combining best practice, expert opinion and useful resources. If you would like to suggest a topic for a future special focus bulletin please email the CDO's team at England.CDOExecutive@nhs.net 

NHS primary care bulletin

The NHS primary care bulletin provides resources on health policy and practice and we encourage you to sign up for this, too. It is aimed at teams across general practice, dentistry, community pharmacy and optometry. 

Key advice, guidance and resources for NHS dental teams

NHS updates to the profession 

Key letters from the Chief Dental Officer and the NHS dentistry and oral health team are online here. 

Infection prevention control (IPC) 

NHS practices should refer to the NHS England Infection Prevention and Control Manual which details the principles NHS dental practices should now follow to deliver care. The accompanying dental framework identifies hazards and risks with guidance on measures that should be maintained as we move to new, improved and safer ways of working. 

Dental recall priorities for children: implementation tool

Children are a clinical priority group for all NHS dental teams. Practices are encouraged to use the NHS implementation tool which assists dental professionals in the recall of children for a dental appointment, in line with NICE guidelines. You can view the tool online.

Avoidance of doubt note: provision of phased treatments

This document is to support dental professionals, and to clarify where it might be appropriate to provide phased treatment spanning over several courses of treatment (CoT). You can read it online here.

Health and wellbeing support