Dentist leaders say they have worked hard to ensure the level mandated is at a place most practices could tolerate. 8.2% of contract value will be allocated to urgent care. This equates to 11 courses of treatment per £10,000 of contract value. For a typical practice with an NHS contract of around £300,000 this would translate to seeing six urgent appointments per week.
However, there remains potential that practices could face financial penalties for failure to hit urgent care targets simply because local demand does not exist.
The BDA has further information and has developed a calculator to help practices calculate the impact. Integrated Care Boards will have some flexibility to adjust the requirement for individual practices where there are exceptional circumstances. The payments for these courses of treatment will change. Practices will receive £15 per mandated course of treatment. This will be credited to the contract monthly and will not be subject to clawback. Where the practice delivers the mandated courses of treatment then there will be an extra payment of £60 - bringing the full payment to £75.
Under the change course of treatment will be for 'unscheduled care' rather than just 'urgent' treatment.
Shiv Pabary, Chair of the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee, said:
“Mandating a minimum level of urgent care on practices is overreach. By their very nature these treatments are demand-led.
“Your dentist has no control over when the next patient breaks a tooth or develops an abscess, and if demand isn’t there, they could pay the price.
“We’ve fought for a level that feels manageable, but this is the wrong approach.”