Understanding costs

Over the last few years there has been a growing focus on primary care dentistry. There has also been a subtle focus on secondary care but not to the same extent. The oral health system in the UK requires a balance between dentistry provided in primary care and that provided in the secondary setting. Some of the challenges that we face are trying to unravel the complexity of these two different systems and then managing the interface between private practice and publically funded services.

One of the aspirations of the NHS Commissioning Board is to bring most of the publically funded dental budget under one organisation. You may be fooled into thinking this is the case at the moment and to an extent you would be right. The problem arises because the budget holders for primary and secondary care are often two different managers within a primary care organisation. It is envisaged that in the future the two budgets will come under the control of one team.