Changing times

So primary care trusts are set to be disbanded along with strategic health authorities in yet another shake up in the way healthcare is delivered in England. General practices are to be given control of around £70bn of NHS expenditure, taking over the commissioning of most healthcare services. However, specialist services, such as dentistry will not fall under their remit.  Thus dentistry will not have to compete with the wide range of services that our GP colleagues will be responsible for in the future, but who will replace the work of PCTs?

The Government has announced a national NHS commissioning board will be set up to fulfil this role and a new national dental contract will also be devised with a particular focus on the oral health of children. The health department’s draft structural reform plan states proposals for pilots to inform the new contract will be published in December 2010. We will have to wait until this is published to find out the status of the Steele pilots that have already been put on hold. Will the proposals include the Steele review’s work in full, in part, or in a completely revised format? It will be interesting to see which of the options the minister responsible for dentistry, Earl Howe, chooses to implement (obviously, those most compatible with the coalition Government’s priorities).