Motions on contract reform and clawback took centre stage with prototype practice owners testifying that changes needed to be made to the business model to make contract reform workable.
Ninety-seven per cent of representatives voted in favour of a motion from Durham and Darlington LDC calling on the contract reform team to find a new way of measuring activity and for more time to deliver care. A motion form North Yorkshire LDC calling for the suspension of the current prototypes because they are unworkable was narrowly defeated.
Chair of BDA GDPC, Henrik Overgaard-Nielson, outlined the work of the committee in the last year. He noted the frustrations felt by dentists after six years of testing a reformed contract but warned that if they walked away from the process, dentists would be left with nothing but the discredited UDA system.
“We have to work for a better system and I will have to be carried away from the table before giving up,” Henrik said.
A motion from Birmingham LDC calling for an end to engaging with the DDRB process until the Treasury’s constraints on public pay are lifted was supported by just over 57 per cent of delegates and will now be considered by the GDPC.
There was unanimous support for a motion on regulation from Northamptonshire LDC to remove the multiples layers of legislation and red tape on dental practices and replace this with a single method of inspection. Delegates also voted heavily in favour of a motion calling for no confidence vote in Capita’s ability to process performer applications in a timely manner.
A Question Time styled debate, with a panel of five dentists, prompted lively discussions on a wide range of issues, including what could make dentistry more attractive to young dentists and what happens to the money clawed back from dental practices. CDO for England Sara Hurley estimated this to be as much as £95m and said it went back to other areas of primary care – mainly optics and general medical practice but not dentistry.
Representatives heard a presentation from Claire Stevens, a consultant in paediatric dentistry in Manchester, about the importance of seeing children by the age of one to reduce the number one cause of children being admitted to hospital.
Conference also sent out a strong message of support for targeted fluoridation to be considered by local authorities in the 13 areas in the Starting Well scheme; these have been identified as having the worst child dental health in England. There was overwhelming support (93.8 per cent) for such a motion raised by East Riding of Yorkshire LDC.
The conference concluded with a presentation from Professor Nairn Wilson on the innovations in dentistry that could auger well for the future of dentistry in spite of difficult times.
Vijay Sudra was voted as chair elect for the LDC Annual Conference 2019.