Newsletter

Hello Lancashire! Update so far 1. LDN appointment - the Local Area Team (LAT) have appointed a Chair to the Local Dental Network (LDN) - this is Eric Rooney. For those of you who do not know Eric he is a Consultant in Dental Public Health (CDPH) and was previously engaged over North Lancs/Blackpool/Central Lancs /Cumbria All CDPH are now employed by Public Health England but will still be providing their previous advisory role to the LAT. From the LDC perspective we do have representation on the LDN in the persons of Andy Cow (Central), Ralph Pickup (East) and me (Coastal). This means that we will be able to keep everyone up to date with commissioning developments In addition to the aforementioned there will be a number of LAT personnel - once the Network is up and running I will be able to let you know the exact make up of the group. So what is the LDN there for? Lets rewind here and look at the intending function of the LAT and the LDN. The LAT are now there as Contract Managers to monitor contractual performance and address any outliers or under-performance. This will be achieved through the analysis of information made available by the BSA; as it was previously in the legacy PCTs. Information will be forthcoming on how this will work but we have had confirmation that it will be a soft touch and supportive process. A limiting factor in this is bound to be the small number of people to perform the task. As the Lancs LDC Exec we meet with the LAT on a two monthly basis to discuss contractual issues and developments The LDN is intended to be the group that strategically commissions dental services into the future. Funding is bound to be an issue in this process and we do have a new contract on the horizon to focus thoughts. As the full picture evolves I will update you as to what is happening and when it is happening 2. Appraisal - there is a meeting on Wed this week to look at the future of appraisal. as you will remember there was no central funding identified for appraisal and so it had to be found locally. There is strong support for appraisal from all of the Area Team including Medical Director Jim Gardner and on the back of this some funding has been identified to relaunch the appraisal programme across the county. I will update you when I have more. 3. Coming up - LDN meeting 18th July - any issues you would like to raise please let me know - email - bernard@lancashirecoastalldc.co.uk That's all for now folks Upwards and onwards Bernard