New UDA targets to be imposed in England from January
- Details
- Published: Thursday, 17 December 2020 11:43
- Written by News Editor
- Hits: 2414
The government’s move to impose new targets in England will pull the life support away from NHS dentistry and undermine patient care, argues Dave Cottam, GDPC Chair. He says: “Today we have refused to sign up to a deal which will see practices face steep financial penalties if they are unable to hit 45% of their pre-pandemic UDA targets. The government has decided to press ahead with a target that will ‘threaten practice viability and undermine patient care’.
Those that fall just below 36% of the activity target are expected to face a ’cliff edge’, where they would have to return a significant majority of their NHS funding for the period from 1 January to 1 April 2021 and face potential breach of contract. Dave Cottam says: “This is a crucial step backwards for practices already struggling to stay afloat. In a nutshell - practices will face huge financial penalties chasing impossible numbers. This logic has no place in a 21st-century health service in the middle of a global pandemic.”
The BDA lists ‘what you need to know about the new UDA targets’:
1. These are numbers that cannot be met
“They are setting targets that swathes of contract holders simply cannot meet.”
NHS England’s own contract data, which we have seen, suggests in November only 43% of contract holders are likely to escape penalties. Meanwhile, 41% of contractors are currently operating below 36% of their targets and consequently will face the ’cliff edge’. That leaves many practices at real financial risk. Remote triage, quarter of current activity, isn’t being counted, even though it’s vital to ensure staff and patient safety.
2. Patient care will suffer
“Dentists wanting to do the right thing by their patients will now be punished for it.”
This move will not benefit the patients who need us most.
The fact is these targets will force dentists to shift focus from the heavy backlog of priority urgent cases to high volumes of routine check-ups. Providing time-consuming urgent treatment, including potentially multiple fillings and an extraction, enables a dentist to achieve 1.2 UDAs for the entire course of treatment, whereas a routine examination provides one UDA.
Dentists wanting to do the right thing by their patients will now be punished for it. In order to stay financially viable, we are being made to choose between low-risk cases and people in pain.
-
Practices are not being offered any support
This year official restrictions slashed our capacity, yet there is no hint of investment to help us secure equipment that could get more patients through our doors safely. Most practices can’t afford the ventilation upgrades now required to bring down fallow time. The Welsh Government has already pledged capital investment in response to our call, but the authorities in England have not budged.
4. England is an outlier
No other UK nation has taken this path. Wales operates the same NHS model for services but has set no target. The Welsh Government is providing NHS practices capable of providing a full range of treatment with their full contract value. In return, practices are rightly asked to work through the backlog of patients as best as possible on a prioritisation of needs basis.
5. There is an urgent need for clarity
Bringing in these targets now - on the cusp of Christmas - will leave practices facing so many questions: How will associates be paid? Which patients should be given priority? How can practices maintain their long-term financial sustainability?
BBC picks up the story
The BBC has reported this morning that patients needing complex dental work might have to wait longer under new NHS targets, dentists warn. The British Dental Association fears NHS England will impose penalties on practices that fail to reach 45% of their normal activity level, after negotiations broke down. And practices may have to prioritise routine check-ups over more time-consuming treatments.
Link to BBC News story:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55334047
Link to BDA release: ‘New UDA targets: What you need to know’
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report