NHS dental target increased
The NHS dental target has been increased from 45% of pre-pandemic activity to 60%. This new target has been active since 1st April 2021. Up until 1st April practices that delivered less than 36% of their pre-COVID activity were subject to financial penalties. At the time these penalties caused a lot of controversy with many dental practices claiming that these targets were completely unrealistic whilst maintaining social distancing and deep cleaning standards to ensure a COVID secure environment. However, it has been found that in February of 2021 the mean performance of Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) was 59%.
The new rules state that NHS dentists deliver at least 50% of their UDAs. If NHS dental practices achieve 80% of the new target, they will not receive a financial penalty. Anything less than 80% will be penalised on a sliding scale. Therefore, those practices that achieve close to the target will be penalised less than those practices that do not get close to the target at all. This scale has been designed to give practices an incentive to achieve a high UDA as possible.
Full details about the announcement and conditions can be found here
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At Hawsons we have a dedicated team of dental accountants and tax advisors offer specialist accountancy and taxation services to dentists and their practices at our offices in Sheffield, Doncaster, and Northampton.
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