Meeting 7th July 2021

THE HUNTINGDON MARRIOTT HOTEL

DOWNING ROOM

WEDNESDAY 7^TH JULY 2021 7.30 START

MINUTES

1. Attendees:

 Patrik Zachrisson  - LDC Chairman & Treasurer

 Mariana De Villiers - LDC Administrator

 Jaco Craig  

 Marlise De Vos

Julia Hallam-Seagrave

Francis Scriven

2. Apologies:

 Amiras Chokshi - Secretary

Peter Mullins

Claire Jackman

Bharpur Sanghera

Deepak Kumar

Avtar Pardesi

Francis Scriven

Meeraj Patel

Gawain King

3. Chairman’s/Treasurer’s and Secretary’s Report: Patrik Zachrisson:

Chairman:

Associate pay and contracts:

There are still concerns about associates not having been paid properly for the first three quarters of 2020-21 and that NHS England’s proposed mechanism to deal with this through the year-end reconciliation process may not be strong enough.  Some associates are of the opinion that reaching the 60% target is a means of unlocking their pay and wants to stop work. However, it is the responsibility of every dental practitioner to look after their patients.

Recruitment:

Final year Dental students will not graduate in time to start DFT in September. There would be a second intake in early 2022. This would inevitably have implications for some training practices. Dental nurse shortages are a huge problem.

Orthodontics:

Some orthodontic practices are struggling to achieve their targets. This is due to various reasons including COVID and staff shortages which are justified.

Failures of the Orthodontic tendering process has offered valuable lessons for future tendering. The tendering process appears to be expensive and slow.  The orthodontic contracts will be rolled over until April 2022. Possibly some tendering for new areas as there is a lack of provision in some areas

Treasurer:

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough LDC continues to be financially stable and secure.  Performer contribution is at £10 per performer. The LDC donated £5 000 to The Benevolent Fund. The LDC will look at offering a grant on graduation for nurses in the area in order to attract more nurses to the profession.

Secretary:

GDPC Exec committee are having difficulties in organising regular meetings with NHSEI. Meetings are cancelled and postponed

Practice activity indicates that a significant proportion of practices are struggling to meeting the 60 per cent threshold. 45% of NHS contracts are at 60% for March and April, awaiting to be fully reconciled and will know fall out of clawback at a later stage.

The Government’s guidance that all social distancing rules be removed on 21 June and implied that the SOP should change. The SOP presented a hard upper limit on what activity levels could be achieved. The GDPC do not want any upward increase until Infection Control regulations are reduced/ SOP reduction

With the Holiday season fast approaching, it is expected that it would be difficult to achieve 60% target. Burnout in the profession is also a concern.

There are reports that orthodontic contracts are struggling to achieve 60% target.

Recruitment:

There are currently 5000 less dental nurses on GDC register compared to 1 year ago.

There appears to be a very low morale on the issue. Many practices are relying on agency nurses, at extortionate costs.

Abatement:

The current abatement that is being taken from the contract is only for the 9 weeks shut in first covid lockdown.

GDPC Exec committee had a ministerial meeting with Jo Churchill (Health MP):

It was a useful and frank exchange, all agreed that the dental system needs reform but main problem is that the pace of change is slow.

IPC/SOP guidance in other countries will be looked at to compare There seems to be a general consensus and agreement that the current contract needs to change.

One possible option is to reduce frequency of appointments, or range or appointments on NHS to free up capacity. 

A move forward would be to define scope for NHS dentistry.

Regarding a Core service idea:  the problem is dentists can’t agree on what is a core service, ethical, political and moral argument.

The Minister Jo Churchill had agreed to a delay in the implementation of SNOMED until September 2021 and asked the BDA to engage with NHSx, the NHS digital agency, on how this would be progressed. The initial conversation with NHSx had been very positive and there now appeared to be a much more pragmatic approach to SNOMED implementation. It had been agreed that a specific dental subset of SNOMED would be identified and developed for use in dentistry and the BDA would be engaged throughout this process.

4. Special Care Dentistry: Julia Hallam-Seagrave

Dental Access Centres (DAC) are very busy.  Appointments are much longer. Patients are on verge of sepsis. As there are no Urgent Dental Centres any more, lots of patients turn up at DACs.  On average 800 patients per month are turned away.

Special Care Dentistry referral forms are to change.

General Anaesthetic (GA) lists for Peterborough Hospital are up and running. Cambridge area uses West Suffolk and Bury St Edmunds Hospitals.

The Dental Access Centres noted that quite a number of fit, healthy children presented with lots of caries, especially in the younger age groups.

5. Next Meeting:

 6^th October 2021