Bernard's Rant

Hi All Hope you are all well. I have just had a nasty encounter with my garden storage box lid which blew shut in the wind and smacked be right in the chops - blood/guts/expletives etc but here to tell the tale with black eye and cut nose. Gardening is a dangerous pastime!! At least I got sympathy and a hug from Clare so it wasn't all that bad!! The week has been fairly uneventful, however we had the Dental Transformation Board on Wednesday and there are some developments there. I will update shortly. I have had comments back that I slip into too much NHS jargon and need to explain more fully what all the abbreviations mean - useful feedback and please anyone out there who has any comments/questions etc feel free to drop me an email. Stuart (Johnson) is developing the website and we will ensure that we include these sort of "glossary of terms" for reference. What I will do today is to include a reference at the end of the rant explaining all the abbreviations. So where are we up to now? The basic situation is that there is not as much money around as some of the idealists thought (here we go again!) and the early days of developing comprehensive Local Professional Networks for Dentistry/Pharmacy/Optom have long gone! These were to be the key to commissioning effective services into the future by ensuring clinical input into commissioning. The thrust of current thinking both locally and nationally is to look at ways of working differently and the LDC are fully involved in this process which is at least a positive for the profession. To set the scene we are ahead of the game in Lancs (nothing new there) and as the LDC we intend to work with the commissioners in ensuring we get the best deal for dentists out of the current situation. In the early days it was thought that the Local Professional Networks (LPN) would be able to lead the commissioning process and guide the Local Area Team (LAT)into the future. The LDC role as political representatives of the profession would NOT be part of this. The LPN would be well funded and have a number of core grass roots dentists on the committee. Roadshows and presentations were staged to encourage dentists to come forward and apply for these positions which would be recruited to under a robust HR process. The Dental Transformation Board (DTB) which had guided the commissioners through the transfer period from PCTs to LAT would cease to be and the LPN would take over. It now seems that the lack of adequate central funding has effectively knocked this approach on the head and now the DTB has become by default the LPN. There is LDC representation on this committee and this will remain. for reference the current LDC reps on the DTB are Andy Cow (Central Lancs), Ralph Pickup (East Lancs) and me (Lancs Coastal) What will be recruited to is ONE grass roots dentist to input into the process as different from the LDC representation, which is political. A Job description/competencies etc are being worked up and this will go out to advert. I will ensure everyone is kept up to date with developments. Contractual Update Contractually there will be no change at this year end - it will be the same as always. For the future however there is likely to be some change. Central directives will be coming down and we wait to see how much local flexibility is allowed. One of the LDC aims and objectives you may remember was to keep local sensitivity in contractual relationships and we will continue to campaign for this. As an example of a Central Directive - for the financial year 2013-2014 the carry over of a 4% over-performance will cease and any surplus activity will be lost. Under-performance of up to 4% will still be allowed to roll over as before. I will keep everyone up to speed with developments as they come to light. That's all for now folks. Bank holiday rant next week and we will look at how we will work to secure the support for dentists in the form of DPA / Appraisal / Peer Review / Audit Oh - just one more thing! Abbreviations LAT - Local Area Team - This is the local outpost of the National Commissioning Board and has a Lancs wide footprint. As you probably know all dentistry both Primary and Secondary care will be commissioned by the National Commissioning Board (NCB) - or National Coal Board for those of you from my vintage! LPN - Local Professional Network - ours will be for Dentistry and will end up being called the LDN - Local Dental Network DTB - Dental Transformation Board - set up two years ago to lead the PCT/LAT transition. Should have disappeared by now but by default has become the embryonic LDN Bye for now Onwards and upwards