BDA: Bad data underpinning bad policies as Ministers correct the record
NewsPosted by: Dental Design 25th July 2023
The British Dental Association has said decent data must underpin the government’s response to the crisis in dentistry, following the use of wholly inaccurate numbers to underpin calls to ‘tie in’ young dentists to the NHS.
Following publication of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan both the Prime Minister and Health Secretary claimed that ‘two thirds’ of dentists did not practice in the NHS after training, evidence which served as the basis for a new policy for dental graduates. The official record has now been updated to state just ‘one third’ of dentists do not do NHS work, a figure the professional body stresses remains erroneous.
Asked at a Downing Street briefing whether more dentists should work in the NHS rather than doing private work, and whether the government would do anything to achieve that goal the Prime Minister answered: “The simple answer is yes and yes. We are exploring the possibility of introducing what’s called a tie-in for dentistry. Around about two-thirds of dentists after they have finished their specialty training end up not doing work in the NHS.” The Health Secretary subsequently told MPs “two thirds of dentists do not go into NHS work after training”, stating that the ‘tie-in’ was “an important part of the long-term workforce plan.”
The Dental Schools Council has since stated that 97% of dental graduates currently continue to vocational training within the NHS. The BDA understand the government’s corrected figure makes no attempt to establish the destination of dentists after training, but is simply a crude measure of high street NHS dentists as a proportion of all those currently registered to practice. This approach ignores over 3000 NHS dentists working in hospitals and makes no consideration of those in dental public health, academia or the armed forces.
The BDA had slammed the ‘tie in’ plan for failing to tackle the root of problems driving NHS dentists of all ages out of the service. Dentist leaders stress Ministers need to reform the discredited contract fuelling the exodus and make the service a place dentists would choose to build a career, not just “handcuff the next generation to a sinking ship.” The Commons Health and Social Care Committee stated in its recommendations to end the crisis in NHS dentistry, published just days after the claims, that any tie-ins should follow a full consultation with the workforce and rollout of “fundamental contract reform.”
Government workforce data does not capture the amount of NHS work dentists do, with headcount figures giving a dentist doing one NHS check-up a year the same weight as an NHS full timer. Over half (50.3%) of high street dentists responding to recent BDA surveys reported having reduced NHS commitments since the start of the pandemic. 74% stated their intention to reduce – or further reduce – their NHS work. This includes dentists at all stages in their careers, not merely newly qualified dentists.
MPs have repeatedly sought to correct the record following consistent misrepresentations from government on the scale of the crisis in dentistry. Contrary to repeat claims made by the Prime Minister, official figures secured last month by the BDA under freedom of information indicate just 23,577 dentists performed NHS work in England in the 2022/23 financial year, over 1,100 down on numbers pre-pandemic, a level not seen since 2012.
BDA Chair Eddie Crouch said: “Dodgy numbers make for a nice soundbite, but not for sound policy to tackle the crisis in NHS dentistry. A failed contract is forcing dentists out of the NHS every day it remains in force. Ministers need to start by fixing a broken system, not by handcuffing young dentists to it.”
