Commissioning query

The fragmentation of the health services increases and the winners and the losers seem like an unknown. What seems clear is that dentistry is going to be divorced from its medical counterpart more so than it was before. General medical practitioners are now taking on their new responsibilities with gusto and some clinical commissioning groups are already using their new powers in shadow form and bringing innovation and flexibility to the forefront of primary care. For the time being it seems like the chaos has brought about a real sense of opportunity for our GP colleagues. The health service seems to have recognised that GPs are independently minded and whilst they are still learning about their new train set they do have the qualities to lead clinical commissioning.

It looks like dentistry is moving in a very different direction, a much more centralised approach. It seems unlikely that groups of dental practices will be able to come together and decide how dental budgets are spent. Instead practices will still be told how to operate. A new dental contract looks highly likely but still fails to recognise the complexity of general dental practice. Commissioners and contract managers want the delivery of high quality services and providers want to deliver high quality and responsive services.