‘NHS dental care failing local patients’

The British Dental Association (BDA) Northern Ireland have said the future of our dental service is ‘deeply uncertain’ and requires urgent reform to stop it slipping further into dysfunction.

BDA NI have said that a hike in costs to deliver NHS dentistry since the pandemic has left dentists worried about the future of NHS dentistry and the patients who depend on this service.

WeAreTyrone are aware of local people who are entitled to NHS dental care being denied treatment in nearby practices, instead being forced to travel many miles, sometimes across counties, to receive the dental care they need.

BDA NI are urging Stormont candidates to rebuild and reform a service on the brink, claiming that without additional support being made available to address the rising costs to provide care, in parallel with work on a new contract, NHS dentistry will simply not be financially viable.

They are basically demanding more money for NHS work, stressing that ‘a fundamental redesign of the low margin/high volume contract model NHS high street dentists work to is now an absolute necessity’.

It says fees provided for care – for individual items from crowns to dentures – have fallen by as much as a quarter in real terms in the last decade. With these fees often failing to match costs incurred the BDA warn dentists are growing increasingly reliant on private revenue to prop up the NHS side of their practices. It says high street NHS dentistry should be able to stand alone, and not be forced to rely on those working within it to tap other earnings to plug the funding gap.

The BDA says urgent action on funding is needed if Health Service dentistry is to be maintained for families across NI.

Dental earnings have reduced by 40 per-cent in real terms since 2008, with committed NHS dentists providing care to those who need it most now earning the least.

The BDA say with morale among the profession at an historic low, half of all dentists are now stating their intention to move towards more private work. Over two-thirds of NHS dental practices reported at least one unfilled dentist vacancy last year, with every vacancy translating into thousands of patients unable to access care. 40 per-cent of practices say reluctance to work in NHS dentistry is the key difficulty to recruiting.

The BDA is calling on all parties to set out a concrete plan to shore up firm foundations for NHS dentistry and stem the flow of talent away toward private dentistry. It calls for the restoration of a scheme – axed in 2016 – that recognised and rewarded commitment to the NHS.

It has also stressed the need for sweeping action to tackle rampant oral health inequalities in NI.

Northern Ireland is at the bottom of the UK league table for oral disease, and Covid-19 means this inequality is set to widen. NI residents are twice as likely to have filled teeth as counterparts in England, and children are three times as likely to have multiple teeth extracted under General Anaesthetic. The gap in attendance between the most and least deprived communities widened during the pandemic.

The BDA has pointed to Welsh and Scottish programmes – that have been exported worldwide from Chile to Israel – with activities such as supervised tooth-brushing in nurseries that would pay for themselves through reduced treatment need.

Roz McMullan, Chair of the British Dental Association’s Northern Ireland Council said:

“Short-term financial support saved Health Service dentistry from collapse during the pandemic, but the next Assembly must deliver real change if we’re going to avert a crisis.

“Northern Ireland’s dentists are working to a financial model that no longer adds up. Overstretched and underfunded, Health Service committed practices are struggling to remain financially viable.

“Colleagues feel they are being pushed out of HS dentistry – at the very time we face a huge COVID backlog. We all need to know this service has a future, because otherwise the UK’s deepest oral health inequalities will only widen.

“We need an ambitious Oral Health Strategy. Our children are three times as likely to face tooth extractions as those in England. There’s nothing inevitable about this, and a 21st century plan can secure huge savings by investing in prevention, not just cure.

“It is incumbent that the next Assembly prioritises the rebuild and reform of dentistry in NI. We are ready to work with every party and every candidate to secure a better future for patients and practitioners alike.”