NHS Sussex launched its Dental Recovery and Transformation Plan, an initiative that aims to continue improving the accessibility of NHS dental care for all.
Released on 25 September, NHS Sussex has updated its approach and has released plans to make NHS dentistry ‘faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and providers to access and deliver dental services’.
This coincides with the new government’s manifesto to provide a Dentistry Rescue Plan.
NHS Sussex has decided to ringfence part of its dental allocation (£130k for 2024/25) to support dentists and the dental workforce in leading and implementing changes to improve dental services.
Patient feedback collected in April 2023 from a Sussex Healthwatch survey, Experiences of Dentistry in Sussex, has highlighted the need to improve NHS Sussex’s dental services initiatives. The survey showed that 40.9% of respondents were unable to receive NHS dental treatment because they had been unable to find dentists willing to offer it.
The Dental recovery and Transformation Plan revolve around five main initiatives
Working collaboratively
- Introduce recruitment incentives and workforce development that increase access by promoting using the skill mix of the entire dental team
- Establish Premium Patient payments (a system where practices receive additional payments for taking on patients not seen for two years) to encourage practices to take on new NHS patients and increase pay to meet the new minimum UDA rate of £28 (increasing contract values by £159,645)
- Restructuring contracts and increasing available services.
Enhancing universal access
- Raising awareness about how to access dental treatment and creating new care pathways for children and vulnerable patient groups
- Developing more efficient contracting procedures and reviewing service performance
- Pilot for dental care for care home residents.
Supporting practice resilience
- Conduct workforce surveys and review service performance with a focus on underserved areas
- Create tools to assess practice needs.
Quality improvement/ clinical service review
- Review and improve services such as special care, children’s dentistry, sedation services, urgent care, and oral surgery
- Support integrated service delivery by involving dental professionals within the primary care clinical leadership model.
Addressing health inequalities
- Develop fair access pathways for Sussex’s dental health needs
- Work with public health teams to support nationally led oral health campaigns
- Develop a Sussex Centre for Dental Development to offer new NHS care pathways.
Urgent dental care and stabilisation scheme
At the core of Sussex’s recovery plan is the continuation and expansion of the Urgent Dental Care and Stabilisation (UDCS) following the successful 12-week scheme that launched in March 2024.
The UDCS scheme is intended for those who do not have regular access to a dentist, have not been seen in the last 24 months (adult) and 12 months (child), and who require urgent dental care to stabilise their health.
The UDCS scheme promotes its capacity to provide follow-up treatment to preserve oral health by addressing underlying dental issues alongside resolving the urgent issue.
Previous success
This plan expands from previous actions taken by NHS Sussex in the last 18 months to improve UDA activity.
Previous actions procured:
- 79,500 additional permanent UDAs (Brighton and Hove and Worthing)
- 38,327 additional permanent UDAs (West Sussex)
- 30,700 temporary UDAs (2023/24)
- During the pilot of UDCS – 10 providers, 106 clinic sessions and 514 patients, and 922 UDAs
- Additional Hours Scheme (AHS) – six providers offering 1,118 contracted sessions per year.
Amy Galea, chief primary care and integration officer for NHS Sussex, said: said: ‘The launch of the plan in Sussex is big step forward to solidify our plans for improving access to NHS dentistry and build on what’s already been achieved across our communities.
‘We know that dental access is one of the biggest areas of focus for people across Sussex and over the past 18 months, we have worked to make progress in securing new dental contracts in Sussex and approving delivery of additional dental activity from existing contractors, helping to enhance the amount of NHS dental services available across Sussex.
‘NHS Sussex’s recovery plan aims to build on this to restore and improve dental services, with a clear focus on reducing health inequalities, supporting the dental workforce, and expanding access to much-needed care for our population, across Brighton and Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex.’
Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.
