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Dentaltown UK Magazine-Financial Solvency—Tests Fundamentally Flawed

The Financial Capability & Capacity (FC&C) tests that are required when tendering or retendering for contracts with NHSE (NHS England) under the Dynamic Purchasing System are ‘fundamentally flawed’. That’s according to The National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants and Lawyers (NASDAL) and Alan Suggett, a specialist dental accountant and partner in UNW LLP.

‘The solvency tests are flawed in their application to unincorporated businesses and most owner-managed limited companies,’ said Suggett. ‘NHSE doesn’t (want to?) understand this, and its stance is that [the FC&C tests] are just standard accounting tests that are easily calculated, so where’s the problem? The problem is that from our initial testing, around 90 percent of dental practices would fail the tests!

‘As dental practices are regarded as one of the least risky sectors for business lending, this is clearly ridiculous. The tests are appropriate for larger entities, such as the larger corporate groups. However, it would be a cynic that might suggest this is by design rather than accident,’ Suggett said.

‘As the tests are of a technical accounting nature, it seems that nobody involved—dentists or NHS employees, including public sector accountants—understands the issues. They are apparent only to accountants who act for owner-managed dental practices.’

Suggett continued, ‘NASDAL is working with the BDA to persuade NHSE that a cash-flow forecast—supported, if necessary, by proof of deficit funding—is sufficient evidence of financial viability.’

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Dentaltown UK Magazine-Financial Solvency—Tests Fundamentally Flawed

Professor Martyn Cobourne will deliver the Northcroft Memorial Lecture at the British Orthodontic Conference in September, when he will talk about his work on the sonic hedgehog gene and its role in craniofacial development.

Understanding the function of this gene is of interest to orthodontists because of the essential role it plays during many aspects of craniofacial development, including normal formation of the face and regulating the number of teeth that form and patterning of the rugae, the small ridges of tissue found in the roof of the mouth.

Cobourne is academic head of orthodontics at Kings College London Dental Institute and works as an honorary consultant in orthodontics at Guy’s and Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust. For the past 20 years he has worked as an academic orthodontist at King’s and has published more than 120 academic papers.

The invitation to deliver the British Orthodontic Society’s Northcroft lecture is one of the highest accolades for an orthodontist. The lecture is named after George Northcroft, who’s considered to be the father of academic orthodontics in the UK.

With the title of The Weird and the Wonderful: Hedgehog Signalling in Craniofacial Development, Cobourne’s presentation will reveal why this gene has such an esoteric name and discuss how it patterns the facial region of the embryo during normal development.

He will also talk about his career as an academic orthodontist and discuss future challenges for academic members of this dental specialty.

The Northcroft lecture will be a highlight of the British Orthodontic Conference, which this year has the theme Ortho360. It takes place from 27–29th September at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London.

More information can be found here.

 
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