Plans to “recover” NHS dental services will not come close to getting provision back to pre-pandemic levels, experts have said.
And fewer new patients have been seen by NHS dentists since the dental recovery plan was introduced, according to a new report.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said that plan to help boost dentistry services in England, set out by the previous government in February, will not achieve the ambition of an additional 1.5 million treatments in NHS dental services by the end of the financial year.
The NHS and Government have launched a dental recovery plan, for improving NHS dental services, ensuring patients have fairer, simpler and easier access to dental care.
— NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (@NHS_LLR) March 17, 2024
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And even if this goal was reached, it would still be 2.6 million fewer treatments per year than pre-pandemic levels, the NAO said.
Health officials are currently reviewing the package of measures set out in the recovery plan – which include so-called “golden hellos” for dentists moving to under-served areas, mobile dental vans and new patient “premiums”.
But a new NAO report highlights how “fewer new patients had been seen in the first seven months of the premium than the equivalent period in the previous year”.
Unfunded, unambitious policies failed to make a dent in a crisis hitting millions
Commenting on the report, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “NHS dentistry is in a state of crisis. People across the country are struggling to access NHS dentists, particularly in rural areas.
“The rollout of dental vans and ‘golden hello’ bonuses to under-served communities has been slow and the Dental Recovery Plan is now unlikely to deliver its ambitions for 1.5 million extratreatments.
“The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England must take stock of what works if they are to address the serious challenges facing NHS Dentistry.”
Shawn Charlwood, chairman of the British Dental Association’s (BDA) General Dental Practice Committee, said: “We warned at the outset that this recovery plan was unworthy of the title.
“Unfunded, unambitious policies failed to make a dent in a crisis hitting millions.
“A new Government must show it is willing to learn from its predecessor’s mistakes.”
We have inherited a dental service where many people are struggling to find an NHS dentist and a recovery plan that is not fit for purpose. This Government is committed to rebuilding dentistry, but it will take time
Louise Ansari, chief executive at Healthwatch England, added: “What is particularly disappointing is the NAO’s analysis which shows the incentive payment for dentists has failed to deliver more NHS appointments for new patients than in the same period last year.
“People who could benefit – those who weren’t able to get an NHS dental appointment in the past two years – are more likely to be from disadvantaged backgrounds and will struggle to pay for any private dental care.”
Health Minister Stephen Kinnock said: “We have inherited a dental service where many people are struggling to find an NHS dentist and a recovery plan that is not fit for purpose.
“This Government is committed to rebuilding dentistry, but it will take time.
“We are working on further measures, prioritising initiatives that will see the biggest impact on access to NHS dental care.
“We will start with an extra 700,000 urgent dentistry appointments to help those who need it most, and reform the dental contract to encourage more dentists to offer NHS services to patients. Prevention is better than cure, so we will also introduce supervised tooth brushing for three to five-year-olds.”
The report comes as the BDA warned that dentistry in the UK is in “crisis” as it urged the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry to specifically examine the impact of the pandemic on dental services.
The Association said that dentistry saw a “collapse in capacity seen nowhere else in the health service” and is “yet to recovery to pre-pandemic levels of activity”.
“Dentistry faced major problems before lockdown, but the pandemic proved a catalyst, and turbocharged them into a genuinely existential threat to the service,” the BDA said in a submission to the pandemic probe.
“None of this was inevitable. The crisis our patients now face is the result of political choices, that plainly must be avoided in both the planning and response to any future pandemic.”
BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: “No part of the health service took such a hit during the pandemic, and none has seen such a limited recovery. Yet dentistry isn’t even on the menu at this Inquiry.
“If lessons are not learned we will see more collateral damage to core parts of our health service.”
A spokesperson for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry said: “The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is completing 10 weeks of oral evidence for Module three, our investigation into the impact of the pandemic on the healthcare sector.
“The scale of the pandemic and the issues the Inquiry must explore means we cannot examine the impact on all areas of the healthcare system in this investigation. Dentistry does not fall under the scope of this module.”
