Arrangements for dealing with the death of a dental practitioner's contractual arrangement are set out in NHS England's (NHSE) Policy Book for Primary Dental Services.
Notification
When you're notified of the death you must contact NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) Dental Services Pensions team:
You must not enter the date of death onto Compass.
When the receipt of the notification of death is received, our Dental Pensions team will enter the date of death in the clinician record in Compass. When a copy of the death certificate has been received by the Dental Pensions team, they'll upload the documentation onto Compass and mark the date of death as confirmed.
The confirmation of the date of death:
- ends the clinician tenure on any contracts
- closes their superannuable period of service
This information is also passed to NHS Pensions for their records to be updated.
Clinician is a 'single-handed' provider
Regulations allow a provider’s personal representatives to continue a contract for up to six months after the death of an individual provider. This cannot continue under the same contract and provider number. The contract must be closed on the date of death as no further payments or deductions can be made during probate while the bank account will be frozen.
The Commissioner can create a provider number for the estate of the deceased clinician. This number is used to create a new temporary contract number for the purposes of contract and service continuity.
If permanent arrangements for the contract have been made after probate is complete, the temporary contract number will be closed. A new contract number will be created for the new Provider.
Commissioners will need to consider procurement legislation and seek any advice from local procurement experts.
Clinician is in a partnership or limited company
If the clinician is also a provider for a partnership of two or more individuals or a Limited Company the contract may continue to practice under the existing contract number. The clinician’s tenure will be closed on the contract.
If payments for the contract are being paid into the deceased clinician’s bank account the remaining business owner will need to amend the bank details.