COVID-19 INFORMATION

Meeting 19th January 2022

THE HUNTINGDON MARRIOTT HOTEL

BOARDROOM

WEDNESDAY 19TH JANUARY 2022

 7.30 START

MINUTES

  1. Attendees:

 Patrik Zachrisson - LDC Chairman & Treasurer

 Mariana De Villiers - LDC Administrator

 Amiras Chokshi - Secretary

Claire Jackman

Deepak Kumar

Gawain King   

Jaco Craig              

 Marlise De Vos

  1. Apologies:

Bharpur Sanghera

       Julia Hallam-Seagrave

       Meeraj Patel

       Francis Scriven

       Avtar Pardesi

       Peter Mullins

  1. Chairman’s/Treasurer’s Report: Patrik Zachrisson:

Patrik Zachrisson opened the evening by welcoming all members to the first meeting of the LDC for the year. Minutes of previous meeting held on 25th June 2014 were agreed as true and correct record.

Treasurer’s report:

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough LDC continues to be financially stable and secure.  The LDC has agreed to contribute towards sponsoring a CPD event for local dentists in conjunction with the BDA (British Dental Association). It was agreed that approval for such an event will be obtained from the LDC before contribution.

It was also agreed to make a further donation to the Benevolent Fund.

In order to support the Dental Team, funding towards Hepatits B, Needlestick injuries and DBS checks was discussed.

Chairman’s Report:

There are concerns regarding new NHS contracts in terms of thresholds, targets and uplifts. Practice owners are concerned about shortages of associates, nurses and other dental team staff. Some dental practices find it difficult to meet their targets and are worried about potential breach notices.

It was noted that any UDA over production would be rolled backwards to the previous quarter and NOT forwards.

NHS - Update on year-end reconciliation

All year end reports will detail practice delivery against each time period and also a combined year end position. Any contract which has delivered 100% of their actual contracted activity across the year will be eligible for their full contract value, irrespective of whether they have met the performance threshold in each period.

This will also apply to contractors who have met the required thresholds for full NHS income protection in each time period, minus any variable cost adjustment. Where a contractor has not met the required threshold for income protection in one or more of the time periods they may seek to address this through offsetting performance across the defined time periods as follows:

  • Delivery over the performance threshold required for NHS income protection may be used to offset performance under the threshold in an earlier time period i.e. activity above 65% in Q3 may be used to offset performance below 60% in H1 and activity above 85% in Q4
    • Performance in excess of the threshold for full NHS income protection or the minimum threshold necessary to avoid full clawback in any period cannot be carried forward into any subsequent time periods.
    • Any activity above the performance threshold allocated to an earlier period will automatically be applied to the period where it would offer the contractor the greatest financial value.

Once any activity has been re-allocated as above contractors will be renumerated accordingly. There will be no amendments to the variable cost adjustment. Non-delivered activity will not be carried forward to 22/23. Where a contractor has delivered in excess of 100% of their actual contracted activity this can be used as described above. If this is not necessary as they have met the required thresholds in all time periods then this activity will be renumerated at the indicative UDA contracted rate for 2021/22 to a maximum of 110%

Vaccination status of the dental team:

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced that from 1 April 2022, all NHS staff, health and social care workers, and volunteers working in England who have face-to-face contact with service users, will need to provide evidence that they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless they are medically exempt. 

This means that unvaccinated individuals will need to have had their first dose by 3 February 2022, in order to have received their second dose by the 1 April 2022 deadline.

These measures have been put in place to ensure that all patients and staff are protected against the virus.

NHS organisations and employers now must:

  • actively support staff who have not yet been vaccinated to have their COVID-19 vaccines
  • address any hesitancy staff may have by holding regular wellbeing conversations 
  • carry out proactive workforce planning to ensure that only staff who are vaccinated, or exempt are working in NHS organisations from 1 April 2022
  • ensure that relevant staff will be able to demonstrate via the NHS COVID pass service, that they have either been fully vaccinated or are exempt from the requirement.

Medical exemption includes: 

  • those under the age of 18
  • those who are clinically exempt from COVID-19 vaccination
  • those who have taken part or are currently taking part in a clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine
  • those who do not have direct, face to face contact with a service user, for example, those providing care remotely, such as through triage or telephone consultations or managerial staff working in sites apart from patient areas
  • those providing care as part of a shared lives agreement. 

It was mentioned that in the event that a receptionist is unvaccinated a non- face-to-face role should be offered to the individual eg, office-based admin position.   

Relaxed PPE rules were welcomed as well as the abolishment of fallow time. 

  1. Secretary’s Report: Amiras Chokshi:

Following an election process Amiras was re-elected as Cambridgeshire GDPC representative. The first GDPC meeting for 2022 is scheduled to be held on 28th January 2022.

In November 2021, mean performance was 75% of contracted monthly UDA activity, and whilst variation continues to exist across the sector, early data suggests some contractors have delivered performance in November of above 100% of their prorated target, with over a third of practices delivering 85% or more

Quarter four requirements:

Contracts will continue to be in place for 100% of normal volumes, and it will continue to be a requirement that all NHS funded capacity is used to deliver the maximum possible volume of safe care for patients.

Between January and March 2022 clawback will not be applied to practices delivering at least 85% of contracted UDAs, reflecting the level many practices have already been delivering

There will be no lower threshold in Q4, so that for delivery below 85% normal clawback will apply For orthodontic contracts clawback will not be applied to practices delivering at least 90% of contracted Units of Orthodontic Activity (UOAs).

The variable cost reduction, reduced in Q3 to benefit practices, will be retained at the lower level of 12.75%, applied to non-delivered activity.

PPE will be free of charge until 31st March 2023.

It was reported that more dentists are leaving the NHS. Possible reasons for this include difficulty in recruitment and less patients to be seen on private basis.

Some NHS contracts are given back. No new dentists are coming through as there is a delay in exams. Most NHS practices are not taking on new NHS patients.

80 % of members of the British Dental Association (BDA) is associates. Corporates are not part of the BDA. All members are self-employed individuals.

  1. Other Business:

It was suggested that after LDC Meetings, the LDC forward a letter to David Barter and Tom Norfolk, outlining concerns raised at the meeting and suggestions on how to address concerns if appropriate.

  1. Next Meeting:

            27th April 2022

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