The British Dental Association (BDA) has criticised the Prime Minister’s response to a question on the crisis in dentistry at PMQs on May 10, 2023.
Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South, questioned Rishi Sunak on his plan for NHS dentistry. In response, the prime minister said, “there are record sums going into dentistry and indeed 500 more NHS dentists working today. Because of the contract reforms that we have put in place, 10 per cent more activity can happen, and the Department of Health and Social Care is currently talking about reforming the dentistry contract with dental practices to increase activity further.”
The BDA says that the statistics re-iterated by the PM are misleading.
Earlier in May 2023, the PM failed to respond to questions from Durham MP Mary Kelly Foy on whether NHS dentistry is “in crisis”. Bupa has recently announced mass closures, and over 300 patients queued outside a Kings Lynn practice from 4 am to secure access, a sight not seen in England for a generation.
In January 2023, he told Lancaster and Fleetwood's Cat Smith MP, "as a result of the new reformed NHS dentistry contract there are now more NHS dentists across the UK with more funding making sure people can get the treatment they need."
In March 2023, the BDA warned the committee, which is currently holding in inquiry into the crisis in the service, that ministers are just “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while the service slowly slips into the sea.”
In March 2023, the prime minister told Bradford’s Judith Cummins, “There are 500 more dentists in the NHS today.” England has fewer NHS dentists in 2021/22 than it did in 2017/18, and thousands are cutting back their NHS work, a shift going unseen in official data. BDA surveys suggest that over half of dentists in England (50.3 per cent) have reduced their NHS commitment since the start of the pandemic – by 27 per cent on average. The proportion of dentists now reporting their intention to reduce – or further reduce – the amount of NHS work they undertake this year stands at 74 per cent.
On funding, the PM has repeatedly cited the £3bn NHS budget. This budget has remained effectively static for a decade, subject to savage real terms cuts. In cash terms, government contributions to NHS dentistry in England were lower as the nation headed into the pandemic than they were a decade ago (£2.2bn in 2010/11 vs £2.1bn in 2019/20), with patients paying an ever-larger share via inflation-busting charge increases. The share of the gross NHS budget coming from charges rose from 21.8 per cent in 2010/11 to a high of 30.7 per cent in 2018/19. During the access crisis, over £400m of the budget is set to be lost from the frontline from practices that failed to hit their NHS contractual targets. The BDA says that in many cases, these ‘underperforming’ practices simply cannot fill staff vacancies.
Shawn Charlwood, chair of the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee, said, “While ministers rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic, their captain refuses to accept this service has even hit the iceberg.
“This ‘crisis, what crisis?’ attitude flies in the face of the facts.
“The reality is mass closures, the return of queues outside practices, and millions unable to secure the care they need.
“Until the PM recognises this, we won’t see progress.”