The professional body has warned the service is now in a more fragile state than it was at the time of the July election. The Budget has added significant new costs to struggling practices while providing no corresponding support, and pay uplifts for the 2024/25 financial year are now running eight months late – a record breaking delay.
The delivery prompted Wes Streeting to tell parliament that “NHS dentistry is at death’s door”. The BDA was the first organisation to meet the new Health Secretary face to face in July. While it has welcomed the tone set by the new Government, six months on it stresses that urgency and ambition are required to save the service.
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 inquiries, 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.”
There has yet to be rollout on pledges to provide 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments, and supervised brushing programmes in early years settings.
The BDA has said NHS dentistry has effectively ceased to exist for new patients, with ONS data in December showing 94% of new patients who attempted to secure NHS care were unsuccessful. BDA analysis of government data places unmet need for NHS dentistry at over 13 million, or 1 in 4 of England’s adult population.
Despite stated goals to shift the strategic focus of the NHS from sickness to prevention, from hospital to community, the Government’s ‘Plan for Change’ makes no reference to dentistry. Tooth decay remains the number one reason for hospital admissions among young children.
BDA Chair Eddie Crouch said:
“The public and this profession have a simple message for the PM.
“The clock is ticking on NHS dentistry and this Government must make good on its promises.
“If reform is kicked into the long grass there won’t be a service left to save.”