GP contract: Government must avoid employing double standards on primary care
NewsPosted by: Dental Design 4th February 2019
The BDA has responded to news on rollout of the new 5 year contract for GPs, and urged government to apply the logic driving primary care reforms consistently.
The new GP contract will see billions of extra investment for improved access to family doctors, expanded services at local practices and longer appointments across practices in England.
Reform of the GDS contract for England did not appear in the recent NHS long term plan. Government spend on high street services is in long term decline, with no commitments offered to address mounting recruitment and retention problems.
The BDA has pointed to the multi-million cost that failure to engage with dentistry has placed on the wider health service, with studies demonstrating the huge pressure dental patients putting pressure on both A&E and GP services.
The BDA’s Chair of General Dental Practice Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen said:
“It’s good to see a joined-up approach to primary care services, with practitioners getting the investment needed and promised. Reform can take the pressure off GPs, but there’s so much that high street dentistry can do to help share that burden.
“Government now risks employing double standards in its approach to primary care. The logic on investment, integration and improved access is irresistible, and failure to apply it consistently will leave this service facing an uncertain future.
“Dentistry cannot be left in a silo. A string of recent headlines have shown that patients in many parts of England now lack access to basic services. Recruitment and retention problems are mounting. Ministers must not write off these problems as ‘business as usual’.”
