« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland: Analysis of Responses
CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO THE CONSULTATION
The Consultation
The Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland consultation was launched by the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care on 20 November 2003. In total, over 5000 copies of the consultation paper were distributed to a wide range of people and organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors.
The written consultation exercise was supported by other consultative mechanisms including a series of consultation events held around Scotland, a seminar and panel discussion attended by the Deputy Minister and organised by the Consumers' Association, informal meetings between officials from the Scottish Executive Health Department and key organisations, and 3 additional meetings attended by the Deputy Minister to discuss the consultation issues with a variety of interests.
The initial consultation period ran from 20 November 2003 until 5 March 2004. In response to the considerable interest in the consultation issues, this period was extended to 2 April 2004. The consultation process was announced in a statement to Parliament followed by a question and answer session for MSPs. A press release also helped publicise the consultation document which was made available on the Scottish Executive website.
The consultation paper strove to promote a mature, constructive and inclusive debate that will inform future policy. Views were sought on a range of measures to improve NHS dental services in Scotland. It was stressed that any effort to reform dental services must inevitably consider the balance between the requirement for change and the extent to which existing systems have been effective in meeting the needs of the public and dental health professionals. The paper stated that no change is possible without some degree of risk to the stability created within the existing framework. It raised a series of issues and questions around each of 3 broad themes:
What sort of dental services should be provided under the NHS?
How should dentists' contractual arrangements look if they are to support the delivery of these services?
How should patients contribute to the cost of the service?
Consultees were invited to respond to these and raise any further relevant issues as appropriate.
1
Further copies of the consultation paper were requested by respondents not on the initial distribution list. Some were requested by individuals or organisations, other requests were for large numbers of copies, for example by a dental school to use in debate and teaching. Some organisations such as the British Dental Association received a number of copies for internal distribution. Due to several requests, a Gaelic version of the consultation document was also printed and distributed.
The document was publicised further by attaching it to all invites to the consultation events held around Scotland. Daytime and separate evening events were held in Stirling, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, Glasgow and Dundee. This meant that all individual general dental practitioners (not just practices) received a copy of the document which accompanied their invitation. The events were also advertised in the Scottish Dentist magazine.
By the final cut-off date of 2 April, 203 written responses to the consultation had been received and have been included in this analysis. This report presents an analysis of these 203 responses. The findings will inform the preparation of advice to Ministers on possible ways in which to reform NHS dental services in Scotland.
Context
The consultation supports the delivery of the undertaking in the White Paper Partnership for Care
2 that the Scottish Executive should "
take forward proposals for changes to the system for rewarding primary care dentistry in order to promote prevention, improve access to services and improve recruitment and retention". It also addresses commitments in the Partnership Agreement
3 relating to dentistry. Both of these promote a modern NHS Dental Service which addresses the issues of appropriate reward mechanisms for primary care dentistry, closely aligned with a shift to a preventive approach rather than one of "care and repair", and which attracts and retains a suitably skilled workforce. A modern service is envisaged as accommodating a broad consistency in approach across Scotland, along with the flexibility for locally tailored arrangements and accountability.
The written consultation sought views on modernising NHS dental services in Scotland from a wide range of stakeholders, the results of which are reported here. The individual responses to the consultation have been made publicly available unless the respondent has specifically requested otherwise.
The remainder of the report presents the "story" of the consultation, - the consultation process (
Chapter 2), the approach to analysis of responses (
Chapter 3), the findings of the analysis (
Chapters 4-7), and discussion of findings (
Chapter 8).
« Previous | Contents | Next »