What can I do to prepare for the April 1st NHS Wales changes?
🚨 Important: This information is in accordance with NHS guidance, and is pending and subject to change. For more details of the changes and the most up-to-date information, please refer to the NHS directly.
From April 1st, NHS Wales will be moving from the UDA system to the Care Package system. Please refer directly to the NHS for more guidance on what this means and how it works.
In Dentally, we will be fully supporting this change, allowing you to continue processing UDA claims for treatments closed before April 1st 2026, and then switching to Care Packages with immediate effect from April 1st onwards. We will share more details very soon to show you how that will look.
🚨 Important: Your contract will automatically roll on to a new one, so you will not be issued with new contract numbers or other details.
In the meantime, there are a few things you can do to prepare.
For treatment plans which start and end before April 1st 2026
For treatment plans completed before April 1st, you can submit the corresponding claims up until 31st May 2026, in the same way as you did before.
For all treatment plans completed before April 1st, your patients will be charged according to the UDA model, and you will be paid according to the UDA model.
Rejected claims can be resubmitted as normal up until 31st May 2026.
Treatment plans completed from April 1st onwards cannot be submitted in this way.
For treatment plans which start before April 1st 2026 and end after
Treatment plans started before April 1st, and completed on or after this date, must be submitted using the Care Package model, even if some of the work was completed before this date.
For these treatment plans which span April 1st, you will be paid according to the Care Package model, while your patients will only have to pay UDA band prices (if the treatment acceptance date falls before April 1st).
You do not have to rush to complete treatment plans prior to April 1st (which is what previous guidance stated).
On April 1st, all open treatment plans will immediately transfer to Care Packages in Dentally. This may require you to input additional details before submitting, which you wouldn't have had to provide previously, eg. lab fees and warranty details. Ensure you have checked these details carefully before submitting, for all plans which started before April 1st and completed after it.
🚨 Important: This guidance may be different to guidance you heard previously, due to the NHS changing their approach. Please ensure you have read the above carefully.
For treatment plans which start and end after April 1st 2026
From April 1st onwards, claims must be submitted under the new Care Packages model. UDAs will cease to exist completely, and treatment plans will automatically show Care Packages.
We will be adding details into the chart screen, to show clinicians the Care Package details as they are charting.
This will automatically determine, based on the items you have charted and the patient's details, which Care Package the treatment plan would fall under.
If your NHS treatments are already configured correctly, we will automatically align these with Care Packages so you don't need to do anything.
You will be able to submit Care Package claims immediately from April 1st, for treatments started and completed from that date forwards.
We will share more information very soon on how CIare Packages will look and work in Dentally - please keep an eye on your in-app messages over the coming weeks.
🚨 Important: Previous NHS guidance noted that you could submit multiple claims for the same treatment plan. NHS Wales have now communicated that this is no longer possible, so we will not be able to provide this in Dentally either. All treatments on the plan must be completed and submitted in a single claim at the end, under a single practitioner. You will be able to deselect any Care Packages you do not wish to claim for within that treatment plan, but in accordance with current NHS rules, once submitted, it will not be possible to submit a second claim for the remaining packages later on.
Other considerations
To prepare for the April 1st changes, here are other steps you may wish to consider, to make your transition as smooth as possible. Where applicable, we will support these in Dentally. Wherever patient fees are referenced, this inherently refers to non-exempt patients specifically.
The Care Package system will likely mean higher fees for your patients, so consider communicating this to your patients in advance.
Lab fees will now be paid for directly by patients, so clinicians will need to know the prices of labs when charting. We will soon provide more info on how this will work in Dentally, but in the meantime, discuss within your practice how lab fees will work for you (eg. will they be fixed, or varied according to the complexity of the treatment?).
New treatment items will automatically be added to Dentally, to allow Care Packages to be calculated correctly. These will be communicated prior to April 1st, but please note this will involve new chart items for New Patient, Recall Exam and 18-24 Month Recall Exam. Preparing yourselves for this change, and looking out for our comms explaining the new ones, will ensure a smooth transition.
As Urgent DAP-referred treatments will now have higher fees for patients, and you will be paid even if the patient fails to attend, we recommend checking you have a suitable number of slots blocked out for this type of appointment. We recommend using zones to do this.
Health Boards within Wales have the option to set different sub-targets on the Annual Contract Value (ACV) of the new contracts, so it's important to make sure that you are aware of these targets and keep track of them. We hope to be able to support target tracking within Dentally in the future, but in the meantime you will need to track these yourselves.
As the ethnicity requirement is now changing (with 'Patient Declined' being removed from the list, two new options added, and mandating that a reason must be provided if no ethnicity is given), we will be supporting this in Dentally. We recommend updating any NHS forms you use to capture this information. Dentally Portal users will be able to capture this data by asking patients to provide this when giving their details online.
Giving your patients the option to choose a different ethnicity, even if they provided one before, will allow you to be compliant with the NHS guidance that you should not simply reuse patients' existing stored ethnicity (given new options are available which weren't before).
You will also be required to provide the patient's NHS number when submitting claims, or to select a reason from the list for why a number is not included. We will update the NHS number capture in Dentally to allow you to provide a reason, from 1st April. It's a good idea to begin gathering NHS numbers in advance where possible, to make this process easier once the changes are in effect.
Dentally prototypes for April 1st changes
Below are examples of how Dentally will look from April 1st onwards, to support the new Care Package model. Please note that these images are prototypes and are subject to change.
Charting screen prototype:
New claim form section prototype:
