The British Dental Association (BDA) has urged the government to honour pledges for a rescue plan by sending its message directly to the Conservative Party Conference's delegates.
As the host city joins the growing list of communities seeing patients queuing around the block to access care, the professional body has adapted the party’s iconic ‘Labour isn’t working’ poster to underline the depth of the crisis now facing patients.
Earlier in 2023, Avenue Dental Centre in Greater Manchester, which offers appointments to NHS patients on a first-come-first-serve basis, reported daily queues starting as early as 4 am. This follows reports in August from Faversham, Kent, where a practice received 27,000 calls for just 60 NHS slots, and in Kings Lynn, which in May saw queues of more than 300 form from 4 am.
During the 2022 summer leadership bid, Rishi Sunak pledged to “restore” NHS dentistry with a vow to address the “unprecedented pressure” the service is under. Tweaks to the contract fuelling the exodus of dentists from the NHS were announced in July 2022 under Boris Johnson’s administration and finally rolled out in October 2022 under Elizabeth Truss’ administration. No part of the prime minister’s ‘Five point plan’ – which included a pledge to reform contracts to keep dentists in the NHS - has since been taken forward.
Ahead of a bruising evidence session with the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee in April 2023, the government pledged a Recovery Plan for the service. Widely expected before summer recess, it remained unpublished as parliament broke for conference season. In July, the Committee concluded its inquiry, describing the state of the service as "unacceptable in the 21st century", and set out recommendations to the government for real, urgent reform, alongside a call for the recovery plan to be underpinned by necessary funding. The government’s response to the inquiry has been overdue since September 14, 2023.
Analysis undertaken by the BDA of recent government data indicates the unmet need for dentistry in 2023 stands at over 12m people, up a million on 2022 figures, and now well over one in four of England's adult population. Over six million adults tried and failed to get an appointment in the past two years, and 4.4m simply did not try because they thought they could not secure one. Those put off by cost are now equivalent to over 1.1m adults, and those on waiting lists are estimated at around 600,000.
Eddie Crouch, British Dental Association chair, said, “While ministers drag their heels on a rescue plan, patients are queuing from the crack of dawn and many dentists are giving up hope of change.
“Rishi Sunak ran for the top job with a promise to ‘restore’ NHS dentistry, and so far that promise is being broken.
“If this government fails to step up there may not be a service left to save.”