Shawn Charlwood General Dental Council on New Accelerationist NHS Dentistry Contract 19Mar24

Botched Tory NHS dentist ‘rescue plan’ may end up with fewer patients being seen

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https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/botched-tory-nhs-dentist-rescue-32385189

Patients and dentists staged a protest over dental treatment at Westminster yesterday, as Dentistry Minister Andrea Leadsom prepares to be grilled by MPs today

The Tory dental recovery plan could lead to fewer patients being seen on the NHS, experts have warned.

No10 claimed it will result in 2.5 million more appointments being delivered yet has refused to publish the modelling behind this. But it was yesterday revealed the botched reforms come with no new funding.

The British Dental Association survey found 43% of dentists said the rescue plan will result in fewer appointments, while just 3% believe it will create more. Patients and dentists staged a protest at Westminster yesterday, as Dentistry Minister Andrea Leadsom prepares to be grilled by MPs today.

The BDA’s Shawn Charlwood, who will also give evidence before the Health Select Committee, said: “Check ups are hard to come by, but it will prove much harder for ministers to find a dentist who backs their outlandish claims. Empty soundbites won’t stop queues outside practices or call time on DIY dentistry.”

Everyone should have access to an NHS dentist

More than 12 million people were unable to access NHS dental care last year – more than 1 in 4 adults in England. At the same time 90% of dental practices are no longer accepting new NHS adult patients. Data from the House of Commons Library showed 40% of children didn't have their recommended annual check-up last year.

Restore funding for dental services and recruit more NHS dentists

The UK spends the smallest proportion of its heath budget on dental care of any European nation. Government spending on dental services in England was cut by a quarter in real terms between 2010 and 2020. The number of NHS dentists is down by more than 500 to 24,151 since the pandemic.

Change the contracts

A Parliamentary report by the Health Select Committee has branded the current NHS dentists' contracts as “not fit for purpose” and described the state of the service as "unacceptable in the 21st century". The system effectively sets quotas on the maximum number of NHS patients a dentist can see as it caps the number of procedures they can perform each year. Dentists also get paid the same for delivering three or 20 fillings, often leaving them out of pocket. The system should be changed so it enables dentists to treat on the basis of patient need.

Have you had to resort to drastic measures because you couldn’t access an NHS dentist? Are you a parent struggling to get an appointment for a child? Email martin.bagot@mirror.co.uk or call 0800 282591

If an NHS dentist treats more patients than their contract target they receive no payment for it, effectively capping the numbers able to access them. If they treat fewer due to lack of staff they can end up returning tens of ­thousands of pounds.

And the BDA now understands the “additional £200million” pledged by the Tories will actually be reallocated from those ­“underspends”, from within the existing £3billion budget. With oral health problems on the rise due to a lack of available NHS dentists, campaign group Toothless in England urged No10 to declare a “dental emergency”.

Spokesman Mark Jones said: “The Dental Recovery Plan won’t make one iota of difference in meeting the needs of desperate patients. Many, many ­thousands of dentists have quit the ­profession due to the NHS dental contract being not fit for purpose.” Oral surgeon Tom Thayer added: “There’s no new money. There’s so much mouth and gum disease out there, you can’t just recycle a bit of money.”

Labour’s Wes Streeting said: “After 14 years of Tory neglect, patients are pulling their own teeth out and tooth decay is the number one reason for kids going to hospital. Today’s ­revelation that the Tories’ cobbled together rescue plan comes with no new funding is what we’ve come to expect from this Government.”

The Department of Health and Social Care said: “The ­Government is developing further recommendations for dental contract reform to reflect the care needed by different patients.” The Mirror launched an online petition to save NHS dentistry on the 38 Degrees ­platform in partnership with the BDA which has now reached 207,000 signatures.