Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Health Education Journal
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Blinkhorn, A.
Right arrow Articles by Milsom, K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

English general dental practitioners' views on the new contract: The problems of collecting information in a time of change

Anthony Blinkhorn

University of Sydney

Martin Tickle

University of Manchester

Paula Kearney-Mitchell

Halton and St Helen's Primary Care Trust

Steven Lucarotti

Dental Business Centre, Eastbourne, UK

Keith Milsom

Halton and St Helen's Primary Care Trust and University of Manchester, keith.milsom{at}hsthpct.nhs.uk

Aim To record English general dental practitioners' views on the new contract.

Sample One thousand and forty nine general dental practitioners working under the PDS or GDS contract.

Locations Randomly selected general dental practitioners working within the NHS in England.

Methods Postal questionnaire, made up of two components: closed questions and a free answer section. Three waves of mailings were undertaken.

Results Poor response rate of 28.5 per cent. Dentists felt marginalized by the government and disillusioned with the new contract. The free answer section was characterized by angry responses and worry about the impact of the changes on patient care and income.

Discussion The fact that the Dental Practice Board circulated the questionnaire made many of the respondents suspicious of the overall aim of the research. This factor may have contributed to the low response rate.

Conclusion More care should have been taken when piloting the questionnaire as the researchers under estimated the difficulties of collecting information in a time of change.

Key Words: change management • general dental practitioners • new contract

Health Education Journal, Vol. 67, No. 3, 231-239 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0017896908095779
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?