The Minister Has A Plan For Dentistry
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- Published: Monday, 22 August 2022 09:52
- Written by Peter Ingle
- Hits: 1516
Throughout the access crisis most of the government responses to questions about dentistry have come from junior ministers. So, it was unusual for the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care himself to offer some detail on Government thinking.
Steve Barclay, who was appointed following the resignation of Sajid Javid, was speaking on a visit to Hull. As reported in Hull Live, Barclay was asked how the government would tackle the waiting times, recruitment problems and ‘privatisation’ of dentistry. He said: "There are challenges within dentistry at the moment and we are committed to protecting NHS dentistry. For example we ploughed £1.7 billion into it during the pandemic to help it bounce back, and we spend £3 billion annually."
He added, "One of the issues is dental practices not using funding to its full capacity. We are working on taking pressure off dentists by making full use of dental therapists and hygienists within the practices because they have the training to do a lot of the same treatments that only dentists are performing. The use of wider staff will make dental practices run more efficiently and free up time for dentists to perform more complex treatment.”
Referring to the recently announced minor changes to the 2006 UDA contract he said, "We are currently changing the current NHS contract to reward dentists for more complex procedures, meaning they will be paid more for doing more work.”
When it came to the finding a solution for the workforce shortage, Barclay said that, "We are also looking at reducing the amount of hurdles when recruiting international dentists. By making the process easier, we are hoping more qualified dentists from overseas will join the NHS."
Other than attracting dentists from overseas, Mr Barclay hoped that his listed reform proposals would be enough to keep local dentists in their jobs and not drive them into working for the private sector.
There was no mention from the minister of improvements in funding, pay, or providing more dental schools.
These may be the words of a minister, put on the spot, away from Westminster, and without a handy script from his civil servants. He has only been in post for a few weeks and runs a huge department, so his briefing on dental issues may be limited. As a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury he would have been used to explaining why there was no more money available, to those requesting it.
Barclay’s thoughts may have a short shelf life though, as he is a declared supporter of Rishi Sunak to be the next Conservative leader and Prime Minister. Whatever his fate, the formula of marginal changes to the UDA contract, prioritising emergencies at the expense of maintenance and restorative treatments, as well as a dash for therapist led care, do seem to be the current thrust of NHS and government thinking.
An insight into how well this may work is given in the same Hull Insight feature. Local dentist Oliver Pierce, principal of the Sutton Dental Practice had previously been featured, eloquently explaining the challenges that NHS dentistry faced. He was quoted once again in the article on Steve Barclay’s visit, and laid out some of the actions needed to improve access.
To give just one example, Dr Pierce estimated that for a Ukrainian dentist to join the NHS, the process could currently take up to two years due to unnecessary red tape.
Dr Pierce’s practice website shows that there are currently over 1300 patients on the practice waiting list. While children are being prioritised through exclusive children’s new patient days, the estimated wait for adults is over 3 years.
Sorry, but I heard this through my entire career! I found Dentistry a bloody hard and draining job, and remember how my heart sank when I had a morning of difficult conservation RCT etc. I “survived “ ( with much grey hair, and many wrinkles), by seeing easy Exam S&P and minimal occlusal restorations, in clean mouths.
No way do dentists want to see all brain draining “crap” from the moment they enter the surgery, to leaving.
Even top surgeons have less stressful hours talking to patients, diagnosing problems, and reviewing cases. They don’t walk into a Theatre, given a scalpel, and do surgery non stop
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