Jeremy Hunt

Dentists challenge Jeremy Hunt to prove his mettle by investing in prevention

The British Dental Association has challenged Jeremy Hunt to put prevention at the heart of government’s NHS ‘birthday funding’ pledge, as dentists warn that a rush to reduce political pressure on hospital targets will fail to tackle the pressures facing the wider service.

In an open letter to the Health Secretary the dentists’ union has demanded clarity on investment in primary care and public health services, which appear conspicuous by their absence, stating that any settlement geared purely around chasing targets for acute care stands entirely at odds with the preventive philosophy set out in the Five Year Forward View.

It has sought clarity on issues around the government’s successive manifesto commitments to reform dental primary care services, its increasing over-reliance on patient charges, threats to training budgets, and its unwillingness to engage meaningfully on public health programmes.

The BDA has stressed that a new prevention-focused NHS contract will only now be viable if ministerial contributions taken out of service since 2012 are restored, to boost quality, access and time spent with patients. Recent figures have shown spending per head has fallen £41 to £36 per person in just five years. Recent evaluation reports have demonstrated prototypes currently being tested are not financially sustainable.

Dentist leaders have also urged the government to engage with modelling from Public Health England on the huge returns of investment yielded by spending on prevention, and requested details on plans for public health budgets for cash strapped local authorities. £1 spent on early years prevention programmes of supervised brushing yield £3.06 in savings after just five years.

Tooth decay remains the number one reason for child hospital admissions in the UK, with a growing number of children facing more than six-month waiting lists. The BDA has documented the multi-million-pound costs hospitals are now facing for failure to tackle tooth decay, a wholly preventable disease, on GP services, emergency and secondary care.

BDA Chair, Mick Armstrong, said: “If Ministers fail to invest in prevention in primary care and public health services they will be on the wrong side of their own strategy for the health service.

“It is wrongheaded to focus on cure over prevention, treating the symptoms but not the causes of the pressure on our NHS. More and more children face six-month waits for tooth extractions in hospital, but the solution cannot be throwing cash at the surgical workforce.

“This is about targeted investment. Reform of the failed NHS contract has reached an impasse, and the government’s stated goals of improving both access and prevention simply cannot be delivered on a standstill budget. To make this work all we need is the cash Ministers have quietly siphoned out of the service since 2012.

“The government’s own figures show a pound spent on preventing decay can yield three back in savings. Reducing exposure on hospital and emergency targets is politically useful, but it isn’t a sustainable or cost-effective basis for a healthcare strategy.”

Oral Health Foundation: “Decision to finally offer boys a HPV vaccination is one which will save many lives”

The decision to offer boys a vaccination against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), announced yesterday by Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has been hailed by the Oral Health Foundation as a decision that will save thousands of lives every year.

The charity believes the decision, which has been under consideration since 2013, will lead to many lives being saved due to the vaccination’s ability to prevent HPV related mouth cancer, as well as other life-threatening diseases.

Under the current programme almost 400,000 boys go unvaccinated every year, which has millions at risk of developing HPV related cancers later in life – cancers which are on the increase.

Dr Nigel Carter, CEO of the Oral Health Foundation, discussed this momentous ruling: “This decision has been an incredibly long time coming and one we firmly believe it will be a significant moment in the ongoing battle against many types of cancer in the UK.

“This decision brings to and end what has been a dangerously discriminatory and unfair HPV vaccination programme in Britain, which has left millions of boys and men unprotected from the biggest sexually transmitted infection in the world.

“HPV is one of the leading causes of mouth cancer; but now we hope that with the swift implementation of the vaccination programme we will see a significant reduction in these numbers.

“Since 2008, girls have been offered a HPV vaccination through a school based programme to protect against cervical cancer, but this has been proven to offer little protection for men from life-threatening diseases caused by HPV; including mouth, penile and anal cancers as well as genital warts.”

Every year more than 7,500 Brits are diagnosed with mouth cancer, with the disease claiming in excess of 2,000 lives – more than testicular and cervical cancer combined.

“There has also been overwhelming support for the vaccine from health professionals and public alike,” added Dr Carter.

“A recent poll from campaign group HPV Action discovered that 97 per cent of dentists and 94 per cent of GPs believe that the national HPV vaccination programme should cover both boys and girls, we have also seen roughly 84 per cent of the public support an extended vaccination programme.

“It has become very apparent that the only certain way to protect boys effectively from HPV is through a national vaccination programme and now this has finally come to fruition we will push for it to be implemented swiftly and effectively so we can ensure that it is most effective in saving lives in the future.”