The NHS defends itself

NHS hits back at dentist claims

Published on 18/01/2008

(my comments in GREEN)

THE NHS has refuted claims there are serious problems accessing national health dentists.
The North West has been hit the hardest by a shortage of NHS dentists. The introduction of the new dental contract in April 2006 led to thousands of dentists opting out of the NHS.
Since then more than a third of people in England and Wales have not visited a dentist, according to a Citizens Advice Bureau survey (that's about 7 million people according to some reports).

Lack of access to the NHS was the most commonly cited reason, mentioned by 31 per cent of those who have not been to an NHS dentist since that time. Citizens Advice chief executive David Harker said: "These figures show the scale of the lack of access to NHS dentistry, reflecting the evidence which bureaus across England and Wales have been reporting ever since the early 90s. People on low incomes are particularly affected as private treatment is just not an option." (I won't get into the debate that, whilst there are many genuine poor, many more people on so called "low incomes" still have a considerable amount of discretionary spending)
The charity said it welcomed the 11 per cent increase in government funding for NHS dentistry from this year.

Mr Harker said: "This has the potential to deliver real improvements in access to dentistry but it needs to be carefully targeted on those areas where patients are experiencing the most acute problems. Primary Care Trusts have a duty to ensure that dentistry services meet local requirements and it is vital that they start planning how to allocate their additional funds now." (these are the same PCT's that got shafted by the governments miscalculations of Patients Fees received. It wouldn't surprise me if much of this money gets swallowed up dealing with shortfalls and bureaucracy)
The Department of Health said it measures access by the number of people who have seen a dentist (I saw a dentist the other day, he was in tescos!!!) in the previous two years and the latest figures show that 60 per cent of the North West's population have visited their dentist in that time compared to 55 per cent for England as a whole.
"There is often a gap between perception and what is actually happening on the ground," said chief executive of NHS North West,Mike Farrar.
"Access to dental services in the region has been remarkably constant in recent years which is why we are puzzled by the CAB's claims. (perhaps access has been consistently bad?)
"We know there is scope for improvement in some areas and in March 2007 we asked all PCTs to produce local oral health strategies to set out how they will improve dental health and access to dental services." So not only were most PCT's being reorganised, chopped up and moved, you were also asking them to produce reports on a topic they had never really had to deal with before April 2006. And besides, there is no way nGDS can improve dental health because there is no provision for prevention in the contract. Without prevention, you cannot have health improvements. It's not frickin rocket science, and despite what the CDO says, until the system actually pays for and encourages for prevention, it isn't going to happen in a way that is going to have any effect. That's just the way it is.