NHS dentistry isn’t working: PM pressed to act on access crisis at conference
NewsPosted by: Dental Design 3rd October 2023
With government yet to honour pledges for a rescue plan for the ailing NHS dental service, the British Dental Association has taken the message directly to delegates at the Conservative Party Conference.
As the host city joining the growing list of communities seeing patients queuing round the block to access care, the professional body has adapted the Party’s iconic ‘Labour isn’t working’ poster to underline the depth of the crisis now facing patients.
Last month in Leigh, Greater Manchester, daily queues starting as early as 4am were reported outside the Avenue Dental Centre, which offers appointments to NHS patients on a first-come-first-serve basis. This follows reports in August from Faversham, Kent, where a practice received 27,000 calls for just 60 NHS slots, and in Kings Lynn which in May saw queues of more than 300 form from 4am.
During last summer’s leadership bid Rishi Sunak pledged to “restore” NHS dentistry, with a vow to address the “unprecedented pressure” the service is under. Minor tweaks to the discredited contract fuelling the exodus of dentists from the NHS were announced in July 2022 under the Johnson administration and finally rolled out in October 2022 under the Truss administration. No part of the PM’s ‘5 point plan’ – which included a pledge to reform contracts to keep dentists in the NHS – has since been taken forward.
Ahead of a bruising evidence session with the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee in April 2023, the government pledged a Recovery Plan for the service. Widely expected before summer recess, it remained unpublished as parliament broke for conference season. In July the Committee concluded its inquiry, describing the state of the service as “unacceptable in the 21st century”, and set out recommendations to government for real, urgent reform, alongside a call for the recovery plan to be underpinned by necessary funding. The Government’s response to the inquiry has been overdue since 14 September 2023.
Analysis undertaken by the BDA of recent government data indicates unmet need for dentistry in 2023 stands at over 12 million people, up a million on 2022 figures, and now well over one in four of England’s adult population. Over six million adults tried and failed to get an appointment in the past two years, and 4.4 million simply did not try because they thought they could not secure one. Those put off by cost are now equivalent to over 1.1 million adults, those on waiting lists estimated at around 600,000.
British Dental Association Chair Eddie Crouch said: “While Ministers drag their heels on a rescue plan, patients are queuing from the crack of dawn and many dentists are giving up hope of change. Rishi Sunak ran for the top job with a promise to ‘restore’ NHS dentistry, and so far that promise is being broken. If this government fails to step up there may not be a service left to save.”
