Developing and weighting criteria for resource allocation in NHS dentistry

Objectives: When allocating health service resources, many disparate criteria must be considered simultaneously. This process is often informal and only considers the decision-maker’s perspective. Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) is a tool used to formalise the decision-making process and ensure all stakeholders are represented. The objective was to construct a dental MCDM.
Methods: Using purposive sampling a focus group comprising of health service managers (n=2), dentists (n=3), dental public health consultants (n=2), health economists (n=1) and public/patient representatives (n=2) was established. This group identified a range of criteria, which the academic team formalised. These were then agreed by the group, who independently weighted the importance of each criterion. An average of these scores was generated.
Results: See table.


When examining individual scores there is little convergence according to role. Only one participant awarded a weight of 0 to any criteria/sub-criteria.
Conclusions: A MCDM tool was created which was acceptable to stakeholders and could be used to assist in prioritisation of services within NHS dentistry.