General Dental Services for the population of North Pembrokeshire (2024)

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 hours services.

The incumbent provider for this general dental Contract has been handed back to Hywel Dda University Health Board (“HDUHB”) displacing approximately 837 patients residing in North Pembrokeshire. These were a mixture of Units of Dental Activity (“UDA”) and Dental Contract Reform (“DCR”) practices.

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 Contract will be offered under the terms of the NHS (Personal Dental Services Agreements) (Wales) Regulations 2006 and subsequent amendments plus a Dental Contract Reform Contact Variation/Service Level Agreement. The PDS regulations detail mandatory services and additional services. The clinical services to be provided are those deemed as mandatory services and as a minimum, the provider must meet the requirements of the NHS (Personal Dental Services Agreements) (Wales) Regulations 2006 in all aspects relating to the provision of mandatory services. The DCR expectations are set out in the GDS DCR programme principles.

The services will meet the requirements of the Contract terms of Hywel Dda University Health Board and the Welsh Government model PDS 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 Practioner (“GDP”) fellow/DFT+ scheme if an appropriate educational environment and programme structure could be provided.

It is anticipated that the Contract will be awarded to commence from 1st September 2024 for an initial term of five (5) years until 31st August 2029 with options to extended for a further three (3) years followed by an additional two (2) years. Maximum Contract term will be ten (10) years.

It is the preference of the Health Board for the service to be provided within North Pembrokeshire cluster area; however, consideration will be given to bidders throughout the county of Pembrokeshire.