I’m really pleased about the news that the government is ensuring extra dental provision across the NHS.
I’ve worked tirelessly to try and improve things on this over the last couple of years, most recently meeting the minister a couple of weeks ago. Last week we announced some 700,000 extra urgent appointments across the country, with more than 11,000 in Gloucestershire.
In my role as Chair of the Parliamentary APPG on Health I’ve been at the forefront of this work, and we are now working with Integrated Care Boards to commission the services.
The government is using a similar approach to the work that was trialled in Gloucestershire last year. Compared to other parts of the country, Gloucestershire’s teeth are in relatively good shape, but there is still a massive demand for dental services.
This is primarily because, like so much else that we inherited from the Conservatives, dental health services are structurally broken.
At the start of each year, NHS England give dentists a number of units of dental activity (UDAs). This determines their level of funding, and, effectively, their income. A dentist is unable to offer extra emergency treatment unless they have used their quota of UDAs – they won’t get paid for the work.
Another issue is that dental medicine is, or should be, preventative rather than remedial. Yet the financials of the service work the other way round.
The current dental contract is very restricted and restrictive. Across the south west there is actually an £86m underspend – yet dentists are restricted as to what they can do unless they have used up their quota of UDAs.
The extra emergency appointments will be for patients who are likely to be in pain, including those suffering from infections or needing urgent repairs to a bridge. Patients will be able to access them by contacting their practice or calling NHS 111 if they do not have a regular dentist.
The new appointments are being created by taking out some of the restrictions in the system and spreading the workload amongst existing practices.
I’m also pleased that the government is introducing a new supervised tooth-brushing scheme for three-to-five-year-olds in schools in the most deprived areas in England.
This new initiative is for urgent NHS dentistry only. We will be working with dentists over the next few years to draw up a whole new dental contract- which will take longer and is in dire need of complete renewal.
This is a start on a very long road back for NHS dentistry.
