Q. I am an NHS provider and will soon have used up all my UDAs for the year which ends in March. Am I allowed to hold back completed treatments that I provide in March and submit them in April?

When completing form FP17 or equivalent it is necessary to include the actual date of completion for that patient's treatment. For the purposes of tracking your UDA commitment this is also the date which is accepted by the Business Services Authorities Dental Services Division when processing the form. So even if you were to delay submitting forms until after 1 April, a completion date of March would be included in the current year's total.

To insert a different date of completion on the form to that on which the patient's treatment was actually completed could leave you vulnerable to an allegation of fraud and would raise serious concerns about your honesty and professionalism if brought to the attention of the GDC.

Whilst it might be desirable to manage your UDAs throughout the year in order to avoid the scenario you describe, if you have no more UDAs left it is quite legitimate to advise patients that you do not have the capacity to treat them under the NHS until after 1 April. You may also wish to approach your PCT/Health Board to see if they are able to offer additional UDAs for this financial year.