For NHS Scotland practices, and anyone whose exam intervals depend on a treatment item.
A001 (item 1-(a)) is the extensive clinical examination and A002 (item 1-(b)) a review in between. SDR Determination I says "Item 1-(a) cannot be claimed again by the same dentist within 11 complete calendar months of a previous item 1-(a) claim". Practitioner Services (PSD) discount the rest of the acceptance month, so an A001 accepted on 13 March 2026 is next claimable from 1 March 2027. Since 11 December 2025, PSD return time-barred A001 claims with error E000853.
The problem today
A routine exam can be booked, by reception or online, from 8 months after the last A001 until the next is claimable. That visit can't be an A001, and completing it moves the recall to that date plus the interval, pushing the next A001 past 12 months. Online booking can't tie an appointment type to the recall date or treatment items, and its lapsed-patient rule counts an A002 as an exam.
What would help
- Per appointment type: bookable only from the recall date (optionally N weeks earlier) to N weeks after it.
- Per appointment type: hidden from X until Y months after the last A001 (or another item). We'd use 8 and 12, with an NHS Scotland preset that counts as PSD do. Test: the 13 March 2026 A001 above reopens the type on 1 March 2027.
- Per appointment reason: leave the recall alone, or anchor it to the last A001's anniversary. Test: a month-9 review doesn't move it.
- A lapsed-patient rule based on a chosen item, so an A002 alone isn't an exam.
- A warning when an A001 is charted inside the 11-month limit, before it's claimed.
- All of this in the API (read and write) and Portal v2.
Why it matters
Patients stay on a predictable yearly exam cycle. PSD's December 2025 Mouthpiece calls time-barred 1-(a) claims one of the most common reasons for non-payment. Most of our exam bookings are made by reception, not online, so recall handling matters as much as the portal.
Is this on the Portal v2 roadmap? I saw in the "Patients misusing the online booking system" thread (7 April) that v2 is aiming for later in 2026. We'd be happy to beta test.
Other Scottish practices: please like this and share how you handle it today.
Hamza Al Haddad, City Dental Care, Edinburgh