ORTHODONTIC SPECIALISTS GROUP
Confirmed Minutes of the Orthodontic Specialists Group Committee Meeting held
at the BOS offices on 5 March 2010 commencing at 1.30 p.m.
Members present:
Colin Wallis Chairman
Harneet Mangat Secretary
Mark Vaughan Meetings Secretary
Ghite Bhavra, Peter Brook, Guy Deeming, Richard Jones, Amish Patel, Anshu Sood, Tom Witcher
Les Joffe, BOS CEO, attended the meeting from 3.30 p.m.
By invitation: Tracy Posner
10/01 Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from George Campbell, Michael Cheung, Gill Cottam, Robbie Lawson.
10/02 Minutes of the last meeting
These were approved and signed by Colin Wallis.
It was noted that the date of the OSG Committee meeting in July has been changed from 2 July (as stated in the minutes) to 9 July. There is no Committee meeting before the Clinical Meeting on 12 June.
10/03 Matters Arising
Guy Deeming will shadow Mark Vaughan as Meetings Secretary and take over the role following the June meeting.
OSG treasurer, George Campbell, has come to the end of his term of office. Mark Vaughan will take over this role.
10/04 Chairman’s Report
The Chairman welcomed members to the meeting; in particular Guy Deeming and Tom Witcher who were attending their first Committee meeting.
Colin gave a brief outline of the structure of the British Orthodontic Society and Richard Jones explained the roles of the Orthodontic Specialists Group (OSG) and the Orthodontic Practice Committee (OPC). OPC has grown out of the General Orthodontic Services Committee. The Committee is made up of representatives from all Groups and represents all areas of practice and is, in the interests of improving patient care, responsible for providing a unified voice in the Society’s contacts with external bodies, such as the Department of Health, PCC and other bodies, on matters relating to orthodontic practice as well as advising
BOS members on matters relating to the management of NHS and private orthodontic practice. It fosters the development of Local Clinical Networks and other forms of liaison between orthodontic providers. There has been considerable overlap between discussions at OPC and OSG with their respective responsibilities blurred and this has caused considerable frustration and confusion. To try to overcome discussion repetition, it was agreed to hold meetings of OPC in the morning followed by the OSG Committee meeting in the afternoon. All members of the OSG Committee are invited to attend the OPC meetings and planning the meetings this way eliminates the need for the same discussion to be had at OSG.
An email offering advice on tendering was sent round to OSG members with more advice to follow.
Members of the WFO2015 Organising Committee manned a stand at the 7th IOC in Sydney promoting the 8th IOC meeting in London in 2015. The stand was in a good position and very busy throughout.
The Practice Development Session at the Conference has been moved from its usual Sunday morning slot to Wednesday morning. The session will be in advance of the Orthodontic Commissioning Education Day which starts at 11.00 on the Wednesday with lectures aimed at both orthodontists and PCT delegates. These run until lunch time. In the afternoon, the lectures will be primarily aimed at PCT delegates. Changing the timing of the Practice Development Session has caused OSG Executive some concern as it was feared delegates may not stay on to attend, particularly as the banquet is now on the Monday evening. OSG will support the move this year, evaluate the attendance and feedback, and rethink for next year if necessary.
A member has retired due to ill health and has asked about destroying patient records. However, records cannot just be destroyed: they have to be kept for 11 years for adults and for children, 11 years or until the patient is 25 years old, whichever is the longer. Mark suggested that the member should contact the PCT for assistance. The member is local to Colin and he was anxious to offer practical help if possible. Colin asked for other Committee members to think about any suggestions that could be made.
Michael Cheung has emailed asking for an issue of concern to him to be discussed at the meeting. The PCTs local to him are employing a project manager to do a review on value for money and access on current orthodontic contracts. The review will be delivered in October and the information will be used in the negotiation of contracts when the current contracts finish in March 2011. There is concern locally that re-tendering for your own contract will be necessary as well as the implementation of central referrals and the 18 week rule. OSG Committee members were aware of differing experiences: there were reports of six or seven large contracts to be renewed at current UOA levels and reports of other practices having to retender with one very large contract being awarded to a general dentist. The only advice that BOS can offer is to build up a good relationship with your PCT and to provide good value for money and excellent patient care.
The Committee discussed the extent to which BOS should be involved in local issues. This was difficult because of the involvement of members locally in what can be competitive situations. It was agreed that the Society should be a source of advice rather than offering backing except in very specific situations. PCTs should be encouraged to be more transparent in the decisions they take - this is a matter which will be raised at the next meeting with Mike Penning.
10/05 Honorary Treasurer’s Report
Colin Wallis recorded his thanks to George Campbell for all his work for the Group as Honorary TreasurerHe will arrangefor him to be presented with a small token of appreciation. Mark Vaughan will now take over the role. A report of OSG’s financial position as at December 2009 was circulated with the meeting papers. The Group is well below budget for 2009.
10/06 Honorary Meetings Secretary Report
a) November 2009 clinical meeting
There were nine speakers, 107 delegates and 17 trade stands. BDA did not take up the offer of a free stand at the meeting. Estimated profit was £4,000. Feedback from delegates was that the meeting was generally excellent. The main criticism was that speakers did not keep to their allotted time and the chairmen did not control the sessions sufficiently.
b) June and November 2010
The Committee discussed the meeting in June. The day will be a mix of clinical and business, mainly contracts and commissioning, with two morning sessions and two in the afternoon. It was hoped that Nigel Harradine would open the meeting with a clinical lecture. Richard Jones agreed to talk generally about tendering as the close of the meeting followed by a Questions and Answers panel. Mark asked Committee members to advise him of any good speakers they knew about: Sue Kindelan was suggested as a possible. He also asked members to let him know if they would be attending so they could chair one of the sessions. It was agreed that some of the speakers suggested by Mark for this meeting should be invited to speak at the political session at the Conference rather than this meeting: Natasha Dogmetchi, Holly de la Fuente, Brian Kelly. There will be no Committee and speakers’ dinner on the evening before as there will not be an OSG Committee meeting that day.
November 20 has been confirmed as the November meeting date. Bjorn Ludwig has been invited and confirmed as the main speaker.
10/07 Honorary Secretary’s Report and Correspondence
Committee vacancies
Ghite Bhavra has taken over from Chris Lowe as OSG representative on the SAC. He could not attend the meeting on 15 March because of the short notice but has been given the next two dates and will attend those meetings.
Peter Brook sits on the Clinical Standards Committee which updates existing Society documents and produces new ones. It is a very active Committee and seeks feedback on the publications.
A prize for Orthodontic Therapists and one for Practice Managers was suggested. Committee members queried what the criteria for entry would be and how the prizes would be judged/awarded. The ONG already offer two prizes for nurses, one sponsored by TOC and the other by 3M Unitek. Orthodontic therapists are part of the ONG and can enter for that prize. Practice managers are not part of the Society (unless they are nurses and members of the ONG) and it was believed there was an Association of Dental Practice Managers. Harneet Mangat will take these ideas back to the Scholarship and Grants Committee for discussion.
10/08 NOW update
Tracy Posnerupdated the Committee on the NOW event. Approximately 100 guests have accepted the invitation for the event launch at the National Portrait Gallery and non-responders are being chased up. Guests include the CDO, Lee Scott, MP, 40 reporters and 17 prize winners. The reporters are split 50% - 50% dental magazines and national press and Tracy hoped that the event would receive national press coverage. After breakfast, Nigel Harradine will give a short presentation in the theatre at the Portrait Gallery which is being offered free of charge. The results of the YouGov survey which surveyed 2050 people with results extrapolated, will be announced and it is hoped that the national press will pick up this information. Nigel Harradine and Louise Harper are to give radio interviews. Tracy hoped that there would be some TV interviews too. She reported that she is receiving 30 phone calls a day from practices and was pleased with the level of interest from BOS members. Practice initiatives in support of NOW week are being shown on the website. Two companies have expressed an interest in the sponsorship opportunities. The company involved in the NOW promotional items will donate 5% profit to the BOSF.
10/09 Tendering advice and Business plans – information for members to assist with tendering
A guide to writing a business plan produced by Barclays Bank was circulated with the meeting papers. Colin Wallis commented that the BDA has huge resources because of the size of its membership and BOS members should be encouraged to join. There is no point in the BOS producing information which is already readily available through the BDA.
Les Joffe thought that too many emails to the membership would result in “email fatigue” and that there would probably not be sufficient material to send a bulletin every two months. Several attachments including the Vital Signs Report, Score Cards, PCT Guidance documents were sent to the membership in December 2009 with an informative covering email. It was agreed that a link to the Dental Contract Management Handbook would be useful for members and that should be emailed to them.
Committee members discussed some of the problems raised by members which included PCTs offering a lower UOA value and difficulty selling practices and realising goodwill. Sorting out any problems directly with the PCT should be the first recourse: one member was suggesting going to the Department of Health for help with what is a very local issue. In the longer term, the Committee thought this approach would work against the practice. Richard Jones said that PCTs are looking for more work to be done for the same contract value: the practice will not receive less money but will have to do more for it. He suggested that one way of avoiding problems with a practice sale was to incorporate which he is aware some practices have done successfully. There was genuine concern that practice goodwill could be lost and some Committee members thought that BOS should have addressed and negated that possibility with the Department. Les Joffe commented that most problems can be overcome if there is a good working relationship between the PCT and the practice. There is often far more to a member’s problem than first appears. The BOS cannot become too involved, certainly cannot commit funds to any one member’s cause and particularly not if the Society has not got a full picture of what is happening. Members should base their argument on their concern for the care and wellbeing of patients when discussing problems with the PCT.
10/10 Trustees – issues/proposals to take up with the Board
Colin Wallis invited Committee members to advise him of any issue which they would like discussed at the Board of Trustees.
10/11 BSA – Traffic lights report and transfer cases
An increase in the number of transfer cases was discussed: one practice was experiencing an increase from one to two a year to one to two a week. Richard Jones advised discussing with the PCT.
10/12 MCNs
Colin Walllis and Tony Ireland are to write a note encouraging BOS members to join or form MSNs: that is better for both the PCTs and the members. They will urge members in the primary care and secondary care services to work together in MSNs and agree a strategy for patient care locally. Hopefully, the PCTs will be less inclined to interfere if a good cost effective service is being offered. Peter Brook commented that PCTs need to formulate a policy on missed appointments and breakages but they seem reluctant to do so.
10/13 Ideas for BOS News Articles
Harneet Mangat suggested articles on orthodontics through the ages. He also thought that a searchable archive of BOSNews would be well received by members, perhaps on a CD. It was agreed to ask the printers to supply pdfs for issues of the BOSNews and OBS going back over the last five years and to publish these on the BOS website
The BOS website orthodontic discussion forum is not being used as much as it should be. Richard Jones said there is also a Yahoo based orthodontic discussion forum. Harneet will forward the website links for both to the BOS office for distribution to members.
Members need to be reminded about the Against the Odds competition. There has not been as much press coverage in the past about the winners of this competition as had been hoped for. An interview on orthodontics generally with the Daily Mail two weeks ago should be appearing soon and it was hoped that the NOW event would generate more publicity.
10/14 Any Other Business
Scottish Orthodontic Specialists Group: A paper was circulated.
A report on the meeting of the Specialist Practitioner Liaison Group on 20 January was circulated.
10/15 Date and Venue of 2010 meetings
Clinical meeting: 12 June, RCP
Committee meeting: 9 July, time to be confirmed, BOS HQ
Committee meeting: 19 November, 1.30, BOS HQ
Joint meeting: 20 November, RCP
The meeting finished at 4.15 p.m.
The Orthodontic Specialists Group (OSG) is the largest sub-group of the British Orthodontic Society and represents the interests of the UK’s specialist practitioners, all of whom are registered specialists.
The OSG’s elected committee aims to do the following:
Promote understanding of the expertise of orthodontic specialists both to colleagues in the dental profession and to the public.
Organise clinical meetings to support continuing professional development of members
Support members both individually and collectively
Represent the interests of the membership internally within the BOS and externally to the British Dental Association, General Dental Council, the Dental Practice Board, the Department of Health and the Royal Colleges
Liaise with other representative organisations related to the orthodontic profession and management of patients
Develop and publicise excellence among specialist practitioners and their practice teams
