Standby: Dental Plan Could Be Published Within 'Days'
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- Published: Tuesday, 06 February 2024 10:32
- Written by Guy Tuggle
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There’s growing speculation that the government’s long awaited Dental Recovery Plan (DRP) could be published as soon as this week, although government sources cautioned that it was ’still being finalised’..
The Plan, which has been years in the making, is likely to announce a raft of measures intended to boost access to the NHS dental service. Intense lobbying by the British Dental Association (BDA), high profile media exposure of patients resorting to DIY dentistry and MPs conceding that public anger about dental access dominates their constituency case work, has made action inevitable.
According to a report in The Times (Friday 2nd February), ’Ministers have now drawn up a dentistry recovery plan, which will be published as soon as next week after the Treasury abandoned its refusal to find extra cash’.
The newspaper revealed that ’Dentists will be paid extra to take on new NHS patients’ The DRP is also expected to ’force’ newly qualified dentists to work in an NHS dental role..
Coinciding with the DRP’s imminent publication, and much to the government’s further embarrassment, a new survey reveals how badly Britain lags behind other countries.
Whereas in the UK- the sixth richest country in the world (Investopedia), only 23% of the population can see a dentist for an emergency within 24 hours. In Ukraine the figure is 67%. In Rwanda it’s 81%. When it comes to accessing emergency dental care, the UK is ranked 39th out of 40 countries (Source: Economist Impact — Health Inclusivity Index).
£200M Package
The Times reports that a package ’worth about £200 million is now in the final stages of approval, the centrepiece being a “new patient bonus” for dentists to give them incentives to take on NHS patients. Under the plans, dentists will be offered a bonus if they commit to taking on patients who have not had a check-up for at least two years.
In a pilot scheme this was equivalent to 6 per cent of their annual NHS funding, with the average practice expected to see one new patient a day. For an average practice receiving about £400,000 a year for NHS work, the bonus would be equivalent to £24,000’.
A template for the new patient bonus has been trialled in Manchester. Neil O’Brien, a former Health Minister said "About half of NHS dentists took it up and by last summer Greater Manchester dentists were four times more likely to be taking on new patients than the national average. O’Brien believes the scheme, if rolled out nationally, would make a "big difference".
Recall Intervals
Last week, NHS contract holders received an email from NHS England containing various leaflets and posters for practices to display and distribute. The ’point of sale’ material is clearly designed to inform patients that one and two year intervals for dentally fit patients are safe and carry ’NHS endorsement’. Many expect the DRP to encourage dentists to be more discerning with regard to recall intervals to free up diary space for new patients and emergencies.
More needed
Whilst the ’devil will be in the detail’, dental leaders will give a cautious welcome to the news that dentists are being incentivised to admit new patients. It’s what they have asked for. Contract reform is coming too, although the DRP is likely to be a staging post, possibly a significant one, on the road to further reform of the contract that so many see as the ultimate red line for rescuing NHS dentistry. And there’s likely to be some stiff opposition from some quarters of the profession to any attempt to ’tie-in’ new dentists to the NHS although this proposal is likely to prove very popular with the public.
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