NEWS DIGEST
New tribunal service launched by GMC
A NEW impartial adjudication function for doctors has been launched by the GMC as part of key fitness to practise reforms. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) has been heralded by the GMC as the biggest shake-up of fitness to practise hearings since being first established in 1858. The new service, based in Manchester, is
part of the GMC but operationally separate from the regulator’s complaint handling, investigation and case presentation and is accountable to Parliament. MPTS panels will have the power, in the most serious cases, to remove or suspend a doctor from the medical register or place restrictions on their practice. The service can also take early action to ensure patient safety by considering cases before a full fitness to practise hearing, where it is judged appropriate to place restrictions on a doctor’s practice immediately or suspend their practice while investigations proceed. Niall Dickson, GMC Chief Executive, said
of the MPTS: “It represents a key part of our reforms and delivers a clear separation between investigations and the decisions made about a doctor’s fitness to practise.” For more information visit
www.mpts-uk.org
Dental fraud costs £70 million over year
DENTAL fraud cost the NHS in England over £70 million in the year 2009-10, according to figures published by the government agency NHS Protect. The report looked at the prevalence of
suspected fraud in contractor claims within NHS dental services based upon a random sample of 5,000 FP17 dental activity reports for completed treatments drawn by NHS Dental services. This was the first such exercise undertaken since the current dental contract was introduced in April 2006. The report concludes that there was an
IN BRIEF
l BNF SMARTPHONE APP Access to the latest up-to-date prescribing information from the British National Formulary (BNF) is now available in a smartphone app launched by NICE. The app is free to health and social care professionals who work for or who are
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that treatment that has been planned in a phased way, or had to be restarted during what was intended to be a single course, is fraudulent; that simply isn’t the case. There are clinical factors that can explain both scenarios.”
One in 20 GP prescriptions contains error
GPs in England make mistakes in one in 20 prescriptions, a major new study has revealed. And while most errors were classed as mild or moderate, one in every 550 prescriptions contained “serious errors”. The research commissioned by the
General Medical Council found one in eight patients had mistakes in their prescriptions, with the elderly and the young worst affected. The study looked at 15 general practices
estimated loss due to suspected contractor fraud of £73.19 million during 2009‐10 based upon an assessment of resolved treatment queries, with a potential for a further £5.31 million of loss in unresolved queries. It is estimated that during this period almost one million inappropriate claims (FP17s) were submitted. The types of suspected contractor fraud included patients not receiving the level of treatment on the FP17 (50 per cent), split courses of treatment (27 per cent), patients not visiting the dentist (12 per cent), fictitious patients (10 per cent) and patients paying for treatment but marked as exempt on the FP17 (1 per cent). The report estimates that without
intervention a further £146.38 million could be lost to fraud before the new dental contract is in place in April 2014. But the British Dental Association has
urged caution in interpreting the results. Dr John Milne, chair of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, said: "These figures will need to be looked at carefully and understood to ensure that the cases of fraud are distinguished from cases where a course of treatment has been staged for legitimate reasons. It cannot be assumed
contracted by NHS England. The NICE BNF app is available via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store to users with an NHS Athens
user name and password. l ORAL CANCER NOW “RECOMMENDED” DENTAL CPD Improving early detection of oral
from three areas of England and analysed the records of 1,777 patients. The most common types of mistake were incomplete information on the prescription (30 per cent), dosage errors (18 per cent) and incorrect timing of doses (11 per cent). The most common type of monitoring error was a failure to request monitoring in 69 per cent of cases. Researchers identified a number of contributing factors in prescribing errors including deficiencies in GP prescribing training, pressure and distractions at work, lack of robust systems for ensuring patients receive necessary blood tests and problems relating to GPs using computer systems – i.e. overriding important drug interaction alerts.
GDC considers direct access to dental team
THE GDC is now considering whether to allow patients direct access to other dental care professionals without the prescription of a dentist. Such a change would mean that patients could see other members of the dental team – such as dental hygienists or
cancer is now a “recommended topic” in the GDC’s continuing professional development (CPD) scheme. The GDC has no mandatory CPD topics but does recommend some subjects. The council is currently reviewing its CPD policy but any new
requirements will not be
introduced before 2013. l NEW RCGP GUIDANCE ON DOMESTIC ABUSE New guidance on recognising and responding to signs of domestic violence has been published by the RCGP. The document provides key principles to
SUMMONS
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