NHS dental payment reform: business and regulatory impact assessment

Summary and Recommendations

In summary, the Government takes the view that payment reform is the single most important intervention it can make in NHS dentistry to address and mitigate some of the challenges currently facing the dental sector.

Retention of the blended payment system remains important if the Government is critical to the objective of maintaining high levels of NHS patient care. However the Government recognises that the current suite of fees per item conflate payment with clinical governance, and the system needs to be modernised and simplified. The Government has therefore taken forward the opportunity to strengthen the blended payment system by radically overhauling fees payable to dentists.

Instead of over 700 payments, the new system will comprise 45 codes affording dentists the opportunity to provide modern dental care and treatment on NHS patients, with much more clinical discretion. At the same time the Government expects that there are significant benefits to patients; the new system will enable the NHS offer – the care and treatment available to NHS dental patients – to be much more understood by patients. We anticipate the new payments will close the asymmetric information gap between patients and professionals.