Agenda item

Report to follow

The Committee received a presentation which provided an update on NHS Dentistry.

The Committee were advised that NHS Dentistry services must operate in strict accordance with nationally set Government Regulation (2006). Under NHS Dentistry national regulation there is no formal registration of patients with dental practices as part of their NHS Dentistry offer, patients can therefore approach any dental practice offering NHS care for access.

Dental contracts and provision is activity and demand led with the expectation practices deliver courses of treatment with recall intervals appropriate to clinical need and manage their available commissioned capacity to best meet both local demand and the clinical needs of patients presenting to their practice.

The contract regulations set out the contract currency which is measured in units of dental activity (UDAs) that are attributable to a banded course of treatment prescribed under the regulations.

NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) do not commission private dental services but the NHS dental regulations do not prohibit the provision of private dentistry by NHS Dental Practices.

The prolonged COVID 19 pandemic period required NHS Dental Practices to follow strict Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) guidance which significantly restricted levels of access to dental care. As a result backlog demands for dental care remains high with the urgency and increased complexity of patient clinical presentations further impacting the ability for the NHS Dental Care system to return back to pre-COVID operational norms.

The Committee also received an update on NHS Commissioned Capacity, pressures and challenges i.e. COVID 19 Impacts, Dental workforce recruitment and retention, and NHS Dental Contract & System Reform.

Locally the following actions have been taken to date to try and address these problems:-

·        Offered incentives for ALL NHS dental practices to prioritise any patients struggling to access and NHS Practice and that present with an urgent dental care need.

·        Encouraging practices to maintain short notice cancellation lists to minimise as far as possible any ‘lost’ critical time.

·        Additional funding made available to all NHS dental practices who were able to offer additional clinical capacity with a focus on prioritising patients with urgent and/or dental care treatment needs as well as nationally identified high risk groups, i.e. children to help reduce outstanding COVID-19 backlog demand (336 session commissioned in Gateshead in 2022-23).

·        Invested in the provision of additional dental triage within the NHS 111 Integrated Out of Hours, Dental Clinical Assessment Service as well as increasing capacity within the Out of Hours and in hours urgent dental treatment services to better support patients seeking urgent dental care vai NHS 111.

·        Increased local investment during 2022-23 into specialist orthodontic service to secure additional treatment capacity wherever possible in order to help reduce waiting times for patients.

·        NHS England funded advert in British Dental Journal to try to attract overseas dentists into the area – match up with providers who have vacancies and support them through the process of getting onto the National Dental Performers List which enables them to deliver NHS dental care.

·        Offering NHS dental providers a flexible commissioning arrangement that provides a training grant to support the employment of overseas dentists.

·        Working with Dental Clinical & Professional Leaders and Health Education North East (HEE) partners to further explore opportunities to improve dental workforce recruitment and retention locally where this is possible and withing existing national policy constraints.

·        Continue to raise local dental workforce pressures at a national level to inform the development of needed National Dental System and Workforce Reforms.

The Committee also received an update on Oral Health Promotion activity undertaken in Gateshead by the Community Dental Service oral health promotion team during 2022-23

The Committee were advised on the next steps, and these were outlined as follows:-

·        Await the announcement of further national dental regulatory, workforce and system reforms during 2023 and review the impact that initial national reforms that were introduced from November 2022 are beginning to have.

·        Review the impact of the local initiatives that were put in place so that we use the learning to help keep NHS Dentistry service provisin and access to care stabilised whilst we await further national dental system and workforce reforms.

·        Continue to work with the local dental professional leads and wider partners to explore all local opportunities to improve NHS Dentistry access for patients and influence the development of national system and workforce developments during 2023-24 and beyond.

A summary was provided which outlined to Committee the advice to patients and key messages that everyone can help to get out to as many people in Gateshead as possible.