With wannabe dental patients in Bristol gathering from before 7am this morning to try and get on the books, the British Dental Association has appealed to Government to keep promises made outside the practice a year ago, and to voters in the July General Election.
In February 2024 then Shadow Health Secretary visited hundreds gathered outside St Paul’s Dental, telling them “ultimately it’s up to politicians to fix this crisis,” and pledging reform to “rebuild and recover the service.” [1] The Labour Party went into the 2024 election promising to reform the discredited NHS contract fuelling the current crisis, to deliver 700,000 new urgent dental appointments and to roll out tried and tested preventive programmes in schools.
There has been no material progress to date. The BDA say it is deeply concerned the Treasury is now standing in the way of progress, and that decisions made in the coming Spending Review and NHS 10 Year Plan could either sink or save the service.
The professional body says the Treasury’s move to hit NHS practices with a national insurance hike – without any corresponding support – leaves the service at its lowest ebb. Many providers were already delivering some NHS care at a financial loss, and recent pay awards failed to cover the surging costs of treatment, translating into real-terms cuts in funding.
In January the British Dental Association delivered a petition to Downing Street co-signed by over a quarter of a million people, urging the Government to keep its promise to save the service. Answering questions on the delivery, Wes Streeting acknowledged to Parliament that “NHS dentistry is at death’s door.”
The Public Accounts Committee has launched an inquiry ‘Fixing NHS dentistry’, with Acting Permanent Secretary Sir Chris Whitty set to give oral evidence on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care on 13 February.
Shawn Charlwood, Chair of the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee said: “We have a new Government, but it feels like more of the same for NHS dentistry. Wes Streeting says he wants to take the NHS ‘back to basics’. Ending scenes that belong outside bakeries in the Soviet bloc would be a good start. Making promises won’t restore access to millions, only action will.
“It has just gone quarter past seven and there is already a queue of people. Those people have been told that the practice isn’t enrolling new patients today, but people are still queuing already on a very cold morning because they’re desperate.
“I think it has shocked but not surprised, the country because this queue is almost a visual representation of the depth and scale of the crisis we see in NHS dentistry and talking to people here in the queue this morning who were here at the crack of dawn before the sun came up.
“But, you know, really, what they’ve done with this practice is almost an act of charity and an act of kindness because they were telling me this morning, NHS dentistry doesn’t pay. And that’s why we don’t have enough dentists doing NHS work. And we’ve talked a lot about DIY dentistry, people literally pulling their own teeth out in there.
“You’ve got DIY dentists, you know, they have literally been painting their own walls in the practice, such as their commitment to patients. But as we can see with this queue, it takes us so far. But ultimately it’s up to politicians to fix this crisis.
“The images that we’ve seen on our TV screens in recent days of people queuing around the block will resonate with millions of people across the country who are in exactly the same position after 14 years of Conservative government.
“And what the Government has announced today, much of which has been lifted from what Labour has announced, as an emergency dental rescue package will go some way to plugging the immediate shortfall, but what it doesn’t do – and what dentists are crying out for – is reform of the dentist contract so we can recruit and retain the NHS dentists we need.”
“We’ve got a serious plan for rescuing and rebuilding the National Health Service. We’ve committed to two million more appointments a year to cut the NHS waiting list, to double the number of CT and MRI scanners to get people diagnosed faster and for NHS dentistry reform so that we can rebuild and recover the service.”
