Labour went into the General Election with a promise to ‘rebuild’ NHS dentistry and with four key dental pledges, but there has been little tangible progress to date, and no timetable for implementation has been set in today’s plan.
Despite a stated strategic shift in the focus of healthcare from hospitals to the high street, the only targets set on the NHS are on waiting times within secondary care, to ensure 92% of patients are seen within 18 weeks of referral. The BDA has spoken to NHS dental practices reporting waiting lists of up to 10 years.
There has yet to be any rollout on 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments in England. Parliament has been told plans for supervised brushing programmes in early years settings will be set out ‘in due course.’ Golden Hellos for dentists working in underserved areas were a policy under the last administration’s Recovery Plan launched in February, but delays meant the first vacancy was not filled until October.
Formal negotiations to reform the discredited NHS dental contract fuelling the access and workforce crises in the service have yet to begin. Lord Darzi’s recent independent review of the NHS echoed the position of the Health Select Committee in two dedicated inquires, the Nuffield Trust and the dental profession itself, observing: “If dentistry is to continue as a core NHS service, urgent action is needed to develop a contract that balances activity and prevention, is attractive to dentists and rewards those dentists who practice in less served areas.”
The BDA has said NHS dentistry has effectively ceased to exist for new patients, with ONS data in October showing 97% of new patients who attempted to secure NHS care were unsuccessful. Recent NHS England data indicated that as of March 2024 over a fifth of positions (21%) for NHS Dentists were unfilled, with these vacancies amounting to nearly half a million days (495,774) of lost NHS activity. Recent analysis by the Daily Mirror estimates that up to 96% of dental practices in England are unable to take on new adult NHS patients.
Shawn Charlwood, Chair of the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee said:
“The rebuild has yet to begin, but past promises on NHS dentistry are nowhere to be seen in this ‘Plan for Change.’
“This crisis requires an action plan and a clear timetable. Warm words won’t get millions the care they need.”