West Sussex Local Dental Committee Meeting
Meeting Held On:
Wednesday 18th November 2015 at 6.30pm
at the Roundabout Hotel, West Chillington
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
MINUTES
Apologies, Attendees and Welcome
Attendees:
Members: T. Hancock, A.Tarnowski, M.Botha, A.Pitchforth, P.Mellings, E.Lazanakis, G. Billis, P.
Patel, M. O’Hara, J. Clark, D. Bryan, C.Hallworth, J. Parry.
Non Members: AJ Ray-Chaudhuri, M. Patel, K. Boles, S. Mehta, I. Belova, E. Cole, J. Grant, Y.
Mbappe, A. Khokhar, H. Shamsuddin.
Apologies: M. Green.
Guests welcomed (TH):
• Rebecca Cooper from Solutions 4 Health
• Lizz Hughes from Frank Taylor Associates
• David Ezra concerning Dental Electronic Referral System
Minutes of the Previous Meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
Matters Arising
1. Presentation by David Ezra Concerning the Dental Electronic Referral System (DERS)
• A presentation from David Ezra on the implementation of the DERS which should be implemented throughout West Sussex by 31st March 2016.
• This will be used for all NHS primary and secondary care referrals (i.e. Minor Oral Surgery, Orthodontics, Complex Restorative and Special Care Dentistry).
• The current triage service provided by the Dental Management Referral Service will cease after
this online system is implemented.
• The system will be able to automatically and thoroughly monitor all referral types so that abuse
or unnecessary referrals will be flagged up.
• Override ability will be in place for cases which do not fit into the ‘norm’ referral criteria.
• All practices will be offered appointment slots to implement the system in their practice. This can
be Saturdays and Evenings to avoid loss of surgery time.
• Scanners will be provided (free of charge) to each practice for the scanning of periapical plain
films onto the online system for those practices who do not use digital x-rays. Any other hardware required is provided free of charge.
• The system works for all types of dental software.
• Full support is provided by the team should any faults/ crashes occur.
2. Presentation by Lizz Hughes from Frank Taylor Associates
• A presentation to sellers who are considering to sell their practice and the associated implications.
• The presentation was also aimed at associates who are looking to buy a practice.
• Discussion brought to light CQC implications, funding, tax considerations, and solicitor considerations.
3. Presentation by David Bryan on IOTN Assessment
• A very informative presentation on the manner in which the IOTN is performed in practice, to
help general practitioners with the upcoming IOTN assessments to be performed by the GDP.
4. Presentation by Rebecca Cooper from Solutions 4 Health
• A brief presentation on the service provided by Solutions 4 Health to aid smoking cessation.
5. Summary by Toby Hancock on the LDC Developments Over the Year
• 2015 has been another active year for our committee with our involvement in the GDC vote of no
confidence, older person’s project, local practitioner’s network, near orthodontic procurement,
Foundation training successful completion pilot and loss of our lay secretary, Jodie.
• At the beginning of the year we attended the National Official’s day and undertook our inclusion
in the BDA’s call for unanimous stand against our failing regulator and it’s ARF price hike, a figure which is being challenged now by the BDA for it’s excessive reserve policy allowing over £9
million to be held by the GDC. We wrote to Nick Gibbs, our MP and he responded saying how
the department of health will be watching how the GDC react to the professional standards authority publication. With Elvelyn Gilvarry’s standing down there is the potential of a new start,
however with Bill Moyes still standing as chair, I have my doubts.
• In February Professor Stephen Lambert-Humble joined us to discuss his older person’s project
and how he will spend the £20,000 that we are holding in his name. Although Community dentistry continue to offer care within a domiciliary basis and foundation trainee’s undertaking days to
attend local nursing homes to offer oral hygiene promotion to their staff, little of a firm initiative
has become apparent and we continue to await instruction of how we can assist.
• We met AJ, who is the new restorative consultant based in Brighton for 2 days a week. He is
mainly covering urgent medical cases (eg Head and Neck cancer) but is willing to accept referrals via our RMS.
• Agi continues to represent the interests of our joint LDCs on the local practitioner’s network and
is reporting regularly. I have replaced Victor Wiffen as West Sussex’s General dental practitioner
committee representative at the BDA and will write regular reports updating the national political
scene. The GPDC has a new chair in Henrisk Overgaar-Neilson as well as a new executive
committee.
• Pilot contract schemes fell by the way side and got replaced by prototypes; 2 to be exact and will
be run from now and for at least a year. Some commentators have remarked that neither is implementable on a national basis, so we find ourselves asking why?
• Foundation training within Health Education Kent, Surrey and Sussex has now merged with the
London deaneries and implemented a “successful completion” pilot in which FTs now have a
means of failing the year. This is thought to be an exception but the outcome of the framework
will be more transparent on completion of the pilot.
• Orthodontic procurement has now gone on the back burner and all PDS contracts will be rolled
onto April 2018. However the process will be restarted with the assumption of efficiency savings
and simplification of these contracts for NHS England commissioners. We have been reassured
that unlike some northern areas (offering less than 2 years) the south will be offering medium
term contracts of 5 years. However this is still a very troubling and stressful time for orthodontic
colleagues.
• The new orthodontic referral protocol and forms have been published. West Sussex will still have
to use the referral management service and the IOTN standard of 3.6 will still be the benchmark
that patients must reach to acquire NHS funding. The general feel of the protocols is to reduce
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the referral rate and subsequently commissioning of NHS funds into this sector. HEKSS is offer
IOTN training, as are many of the orthodontic providers.
The BSA ran it’s contractor loss program which looked at re-attendances within a 28 day period,
letters were sent to providers placing them in 3 positions of good, bad or terrible. Terrible reattendance data was to be followed up with further investigation with the assumption of clawing
back inappropriate claims. There is a growing fear that these BSA and local commissioning policing is leading to a culture of under claiming especially with younger associates through fear of
the red flagged.
We have been invited to sit as observers on the NHS England South (south east) DCQAP or
dental contracting and quality assessment panel. This is being taken up by Agi and George on a
“when they can” basis to keep costs for the committee down but to keep representation within
the commissioners up.
We continue to have strong representation at the South East Channel meetings, which is a quarterly coming together of the 4 LDCS from the Kent, Surrey and Sussex regions. This has acted
as a hub and spoke for local and regional issues. Recently, this form has been used to write to
the commissioners expressing our misgivings for the LPN chair, which has led to his stepping
down. The role of LPN chair is thought to be considered to involve both Kent and Surrey/Sussex
LPNs but as yet this position has remained vacant.
We have lost Brett Dwane, our consultant in public health and Chris Allen has retired from his
position within Kent. A letter has been written to Public Health England and the 2 positions are
being advertised.
Barry Cockcroft has stood down as chief dental officer and has been replaced by Sara Hurley.
She has remarked that the condition that was left by Barry was hopeless with no bottom up
feedback to DoH from what was happening in the regions but she has promised to correct this
and at the moment she appears motivated and keen. She will be attending our South East
Channel group early in the New Year.
Scotland LDCs are actively assisting practices in converting from NHS to private via insurance
based schemes or pay as you go patients.
Contractual uplift of 1.34% was awarded for all English provider contracts with 1% indicated towards dentist’s pay.
What to look forward to over the coming year:
 Further involvement with clinical commissioning groups
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Devolution of commissioning to more local and regional areas
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Further policing and scrutiny of NHS claims
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Development of the LPN and implementation commissioning guides for paediatrics, oral
surgery, special care and restorative dentistry.
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Tendering for level 2 tiers within primary care as indicated through the commissioning
guides
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Unification of the unscheduled or out of hours dental service across Kent, Surrey and Sussex
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Substantially less contractual uplift (possible 0.5% pay increase on contracts) based on the
promised 1% for public service.
Effectively, do more for less or in the words of out Scottish colleagues “just get out!”
Area Team Update (PM)
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Resources are limited (concerning number of people), with increasing workloads.
They are pushing ahead with Surrey practice visits.
There are many more complaints to deal with.
There will be a post for a new dental and medical practice advisor in the new year.
DCQAP Update
• G Billis and A Tarnowski attended the meeting today.
• If a practice owner has two NHS contracts (i.e. owns two or more practices) UDAs from one
practice cannot be offset against the negative shortfall from another practice.
• If you intend to send patient sensitive data (i.e. data with two identifiable pieces of information
relating to the patient, such as the name and date of birth) then this MUST be sent via the
NHS.net email account otherwise a breach notice can be issued to the practice.
Secretary’s and LPN Report
• Adverts due to go out shortly for the new chair of the LPN and for a new dental public health
consultant.
• They have recruited a dental care professional for the LPN.
• Progress is slow due to limited funding and still working on setting up structures.
Treasurer’s Report
• The income for the year was £51k. Expenditure totalled approx £50,200, leaving a surplus of
£800 for the year.
• We have funded the core day which totalled £5k net.
• The levy will be kept the same for next year.
GDPC and Channel Report
• On the LDC website.
Any Other Business
• None
Date and Venue of the Next Meeting
The next full meeting is on Wed 24th February 2016 at the Roundabout Hotel, West Chillington at
6.30pm.
Exec 4.30 pm
Wed 9th December 2015
LDC Main 6.30 pm
Wed 24th February 2016
Wed 13th April 2016