Dental Services - Carmarthen

From April 2006 Local Health Boards assumed full control of the budget for NHS Primary Care Dental Services and have a clear responsibility to secure or provide services for the people in its area to meet all reasonable requirements and provide out-of-hour services.

Hywel Dda University Health Board are seeking to commission NHS dental service for the Carmarthen area

The aims for General Dental Service (“GDS”) provision are:

• To provide access for the local population to NHS Dental Services
• To deliver appropriate, quality, efficient and cost-effective services within the mandatory and potential additional services framework of the Personal Dental Services (“PDS”) regulations and agreement and the Welsh Government (“WG”) Dental Contract Reform (“DCR”) programme and the associated GDS/PDS Contract Variation in respect of contract reform elements.
• To develop services in line with the Welsh Government and Hywel Dda University Health Board’s aim for Primary Care Dental provision to improve the oral health of the population and contribute to reduction in health inequalities.
• To provide high quality General Dental Services (“GDS”) and potentially additional enhanced services that meet the specific needs of the diverse population groups within the Health Board (“HB”) area, including flexibility of appointment times.
• To establish a positive working relationship between the HB and other professional groups to facilitate and maximise service delivery.
• To deliver services in a Multi-Disciplinary Team approach (“MDT”) aligned to the requirements of contract reform and following WG approach to develop and optimise the available skill mix.
• To deliver NHS Dental Services in line with the annual interim/contract variation guidance issued by WG for the transition of service delivery under contract reform.

The services will meet the requirements of the contract terms of Hywel Dda University Health Board and the Welsh Government model GDS agreement.

The contract excludes the following additional services:

• Orthodontics
• Sedation Services
• Domiciliary Services
• Minor Oral Surgery

HDUHB wishes to encourage the development of enhanced skills across the entire dental team and to encourage increasing Dental Foundation Training places and training Practices in the area. This is in line with the current dental contract reform process currently being undertaken by Welsh Government. The current tender is for a contract reform practice. The HB would give consideration to a potential placement for a General Dental Practitioner (“GDP”) fellow/DFT+ scheme if an appropriate educational environment and programme structure could be provided.

Bids will be accepted for full or partial volumes. Preference will be given to bids for full volumes, where partial bids are received, they will be awarded by the Health Board on a ranked basis with the highest ranked bidder being awarded the maximum figure requested in their technical capability response, the second placed bidder will be awarded either the remainder or up to the maximum figure indicated, any further volumes will be awarded based on the same scale.

The Procurement will result in the award of a sole/multi supplier contract(s).