BDA slams Government over dental access
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- Published: Friday, 01 December 2017 08:14
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Millions of Britons have no local dentist willing to take on new NHS patients, a Times investigation has found. The BDA has long criticised the ‘cost limited funding system’ for dentistry that can provide care for little over half the population. It also says the government is failing to honour two successive manifesto pledges to make a decisive break from the target driven contract system introduced in 2006.
The BDA’s chair of General Dental Practice Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen said: “When dental care is being commissioned for just half the population it’s not surprising that millions of patients risk missing out. Access problems are now hitting patients across England, but officials would rather brush them off than fix the rotten system at their heart.
“Work on expanding access and encouraging child attendance is vital, but it is disingenuous to suggest that government plans can achieve this. Without new resources NHS dentists are being asked to swap one group of patients for another. This isn’t about dentists turning their back on NHS dentistry. For over a decade this failed system has turned its back on them.”
The Times report said that in 24 local authorities in England, every dentist is taking on only private patients, according to the most in-depth analysis to date of information published on the NHS Choices website. Of those surgeries with information on NHS Choices about whether they are accepting new NHS patients, 49 per cent are currently not taking on new adults. Some 42% are refusing to see new children entirely, with others only accepting them if they have a parent who is a patient. Research by The Times suggests these figures are likely to be representative of the wider picture.
In Kirklees, where 96% of surgeries say they will not take on new NHS patients, the local council gave funding to Dentaid, a charity which mainly works in developing countries, to run a free mobile dentists’ clinic. In two weeks in September it saw more than 300 patients.
NHS statistics show that 96% of patients in England looking to get a dental appointment at a surgery they have been to before are successful. However, the proportion drops to 74% among those seeking an appointment at a new surgery.
Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “Access to NHS dentistry remains hugely uneven, and it can’t be right that in some areas it is simply unavailable to new patients.”
Sara Hurley, chief dental officer at NHS England, said: “A recent survey of patients showed that when people need an NHS dentist appointment, they are almost always able to get one, and that nearly nine times out of ten their experience is positive. To expand access even more, we recently launched ‘Starting Well’, a campaign targeted at high-need communities to help children under five see their dentist.”
The BDA said lack of access was often the result of local NHS bosses failing to fund enough care for residents. It said the levels of dental activity paid for only covered a little over half the population in England, accusing the government of having “a vested interest in keeping patients away and costs down”.
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