Arrangements for dealing with the death of a dental practitioner's contractual arrangement are set out within NHS England (NHSE) Policy Book for Primary Dental Services.
The information below sets out the process for the necessary Compass amendments.
Notification
Once notified of the death you should advise NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) Dental Services Pension team by emailing nhsbsa.dentalpensions@nhs.net.
Do not enter the date of death onto Compass.
On receipt of the notification of death our Pension team will enter the date of death in the performer record in Compass. Once a copy of the death certificate has been received by the Pensions team, they will upload the documentation onto Compass and mark the date of death as confirmed.
The confirmation of the date of death triggers the system to end the performer tenure on any contracts and closes their superannuable period of service. This information is then also passed to NHS Pensions for their records to be updated.
Performer is a 'single-handed' provider
Whilst the regulations allow for the contractor's personal representatives to continue the contract for up to six months after the death of an individual provider, this cannot continue under the same contract and provider number. On confirming the date of death, the system will automatically close the contract number 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 performer and use this number to create a new temporary contract number for the purposes of contract and service continuity.
Once probate is complete, and if permanent arrangements for the continuation of the contract have been made, the temporary contract number should be closed and a new one created for the new Provider as appropriate.
Commissioners will need to consider procurement legislation and seek any advice from local procurement experts.
Performer is in a partnership or limited company
If the performer is also a Business Owner for a partnership of two or more individuals or a Limited Company the contract may continue to practice under the existing contract number. The performer tenure will be closed on the contract.
As a precaution you should check that the payments for the contract are not being paid into an individual bank account for the deceased performer as this account will be frozen. If this is the case the remaining business owner will need to amend the bank details for any future payments.