The latest NASDAL (National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants and Lawyers) Benchmarking figures for 2018-19 have just been released and show the gap in profitability between NHS and Private practices has grown – a typical private practice’s profit over £16,000 greater than that of a typical NHS practice.
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The CDO (England) is calling for volunteers in the dental workforce to be redeployed to areas of need within the wider NHS, based on the competencies of each team member. The BDA has been engaged in talks on the provision of PPE and the Chancellor has announced a scheme to help the self-employed, but not for those earning over £50K a year.
Public Health England has published the latest oral health survey of 5-year olds. It shows that nearly a quarter of them had experience of dental decay. There was wide variation in both prevalence and severity of experience of dental decay by geographical area, level of deprivation and ethnic group. Further work to improve oral health and reduce inequalities is needed.
Updated guidance for dental practices has been belatedly issued by Sara Hurley, Chief Dental Officer England and Matt Neligan, Director of Primary Care and System Transformation, NHS England. It covers advice to stop ‘routine, non-urgent dental care’ and contract funding and reconciliation in both 2019/20 and 2020/21.
Read more: COVID-19: Wednesday Update II: NHS England issues new guidance – at last
Updated advice on Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, where the Government is offering all employers access to a grant which will cover up to 80% of the total cost of wages. The GDC has offered few crumbs of comfort about mitigating the retention fee. The BDA has asked the GDC for leniency regarding registrants’ ability to comply with CPD requirements this year. The Chancellor has spoken of help for self-employed.
Accountants UNW’s Dental Business Unit has issued advice on the financial aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic as they affect general dental practitioners. They are publicised on GDPUK news by kind permission of Alan Suggett. He says he is hoping to update it regularly as news develops. The advice includes details on the new Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Read more: COVID-19: 23rd March Update II, Accountants UNW issues advice to GDPs
The BDA has issued urgent advice to dentists, sent by email to members on March 22. They say there should be a reduction in the amount of routine dental activity, particularly in respect of vulnerable groups and that staff and patient exposure to potential infection should be reduced by avoiding all aerosol generating procedures wherever possible. The BDA will continue to make the case forcefully that support should be offered to protect dentists’ NHS income and that this protection extends to associates.
Read more: COVID-19: 23rd March Update I, BDA issues urgent advice to dentists
The BDA has responded to the new guidelines which probably spell the end of most routine care in England, lamenting the absence of any current safety net to support services through this crisis. The FGDP(UK) has published a consolidation of the advice given out by the four UK Chief Dental Officers.
The first article on how COVID-19 affected dental practice in Wuhan China has been published. Across the USA, individual states have been ordering dental practices to reduce contact with patients where possible. The Irish Dental Association has said that widespread closure of dental practices across the country is now inevitable.
Read more: COVID-19 Weekend update I: Developments in China, USA and Republic of Ireland