Birmingham Dentist Slams Talk Of 'Ringfencing' As 'Platitudes'
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- Published: Friday, 05 January 2024 09:49
- Written by Guy Tuggle
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A Birmingham dentist and practice owner has set alarm bells ringing as the additional UDAs he was banking on receiving were suddenly no longer up for grabs following the West Midlands Integrated Care Board’s diversion of unspent dental funds to support alternative health services.
Speaking to GDPUK, Dr Vijay Sudra, past chair of LDC Conference and owner of the Shard End Dental Practice near Castle Bromwich in Birmingham, said many dentists had been led to believe that dental underspends were now ring fenced so that ICBs could fund on-target practices to work up to 10% above target and so help address post-Covid backlogs.
"It was clear, based on historical clawbacks from the NHSE dental budget (excluding the pandemic years) £169m 2019-20 and £450m+ in 2022-23, that there would be signifcant clawback in 2023-24" said Mr Sudra.
The practice owner is now in danger of running out of funding in the middle of February and faces the prospect of being unable to fulfil appointments made until the new financial year begins in April.
Mr Sudra told GDPUK that his dilemma is all the more worrying because such a high percentage of his patients would be unable to find the money for private fees. "I am very committed to the NHS, notwithstanding the awful contract" Sudra explained. "Dentistry has been good to me. My patients have been good to me and I don’t want to let anyone down".
Thousands of patients could see their treatment plans "suspended in thin air if practices that were banking on additional UDAs don’t receive them" Mr Sudra said.
"The problem would appear to be that although the profession was given to believe that dental budgets were being ringfenced, there is no legal requirement for commissioners to spend the dental budget for that purpose, and as we all know, the winter months cripple health services every year and drain departmental budgets. Tough decisions then have to be made and dentistry always loses out".
"It’s so short sighted" Mr Sudra added. "An extra £1M for dentistry in this area funds a lot of appointments and if these don’t happen then further down the line patients will simply present at A&E where they cost the NHS far, far more".
Mr Sudra’s woes made the BBC News headlines in the Midlands and their reporter, Michele Paduano confirmed in his piece that the ICB had reallocated dental monies ’as a result of financial pressures in the NHS elsewhere’.
Riverdale Healthcare, which operates 12 practices across the Midlands, was also reported to have been hit by the ICB’s ’last-minute’ financial manoeuvring. Ian Gordon, its Dental Director was quoted on the BBC saying that ’the last minute change was the equivalent of not treating 5000 patients, or, two dentists not working for a year’.
A spokesperson for the West Midlands ICBs admitted that they faced tough choices in their bid to ’balance the books’ with all ICBs having been "asked to review their financial plans to ensure we reach as close to a break-even position as possible".
The spokesperson confirmed "This funding is discretionary and is not a mandated contractual requirement as part of the dental contract ... We recognise this will be disappointing to dental colleagues and ... we may need to support practices who are particularly affected".
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