Dental Protection has welcomed the Government’s commitment to fundamental contract reform and called for a clear timetable for implementation.
This follows the NHS 10 year plan for England announced today which also includes broad plans for improving patient access to NHS dentistry and grow the dental workforce.
Raj Rattan, Dental Director at Dental Protection said: “Dental Protection has long called for systemic reforms that could improve the delivery of care for patients and safeguard the wellbeing of the dental workforce. These include GDS contract reform, expansion, and better use of the dental workforce, and improving access to care, alongside the introduction of measures that support teams to deliver optimised care and ensure appropriate remuneration.
“The commitment within the NHS 10-year plan to begin the process of fundamental contract reform is very welcome. Reform has however been long talked about without being delivered, so we will urge the Government to set a clear timetable for implementation. A realistic new model for the provision of NHS dental care is urgently required.
“We also welcome the Government’s desire to broaden the remit of dental team members such as dental therapists and dental nurses. This could utilise their skills more fully while potentially shortening waiting times for routine treatments, and freeing dentists’ time to focus on more complex procedures.
“Any expansion of team members’ roles must be underpinned by appropriate and adequate indemnity arrangements. We are committed to working with government to ensure this is fully considered.
“Despite some positive steps for dentistry, sadly an opportunity has been missed in terms of laying out a timeframe for reforming the GDC. The legislation that sets out the regulator’s powers is now long out of date and a clear commitment from the Government is needed.”
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Notes to editors
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About Dental Protection
Dental Protection is a registered trademark and a trading name of The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”). MPS is the world’s leading protection organisation for doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals. We protect and support the professional interests of more than 300,000 members around the world. Membership provides access to expert advice and support and can also provide, depending on the type of membership required, the right to request indemnity for any complaints or claims arising from professional practice.
Our in-house experts assist with the wide range of legal and ethical problems that arise from professional practice. This can include clinical negligence claims, complaints, medical and dental council inquiries, legal and ethical dilemmas, disciplinary procedures, inquests and fatal accident inquiries.
Our philosophy is to support safe practice in medicine and dentistry by helping to avert problems in the first place. We do this by promoting risk management through our E-learning, clinical risk assessments, publications, conferences, lectures and presentations.
MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.