BDA launches UDA Checker

A UDA checker has been launched by the British Dental Association allowing dentists to check the unit of dental activity values within their area.
Available to BDA members, the tool enables important information regarding contracts to be checked and compared to other postcodes and NHS areas, and give access to key information for negotiation purposes on contract delivery issues, UDA values, retention and recruitment.
Chair of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, Dave Cottam, said. ‘We’ve set out to create a tool for:
All GDPs, for the associate who needs to know the parameters when negotiating on UDA values, and for the owner who needs better information in difficult conversations with commissioners.
The UDA is a broken system, but for as long as it remains common currency, we believe all dentists should know the facts, and where they stand. Sunlight is the best medicine. We’re putting information tucked away on government websites into the hands of members.’
There was a unanimous call for a minimum UDA value of £25 at last year’s local dental committees annual conference, a rate that is already been received with Welsh colleagues in the contract reform pilots.
A BDA spokesperson commented; “NHS dentists will always do everything necessary to provide safe care for their patients, but with UDA rates lower than £25, it’s hard to see how providers can achieve this, without paying for it out of their own pockets.”
Concerns over dental charges in England compared to Wales were also raised at the conference, with a call to investigate the rising charges.
“Dental charges remain an important contribution to the overall cost of the NHS budget,’ Steve Brine, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health and Primary Care, said earlier last year.