Dentists treating the most vulnerable failed by Stormont

The Community Dental Service in Northern Ireland provides dental care for people of all ages including children and adults with learning disabilities, patients with health problems, phobias and those unable to leave their homes.

They are the only health service workers in the UK not to have had their terms and conditions modernised since the 1980s.   

In March 2016, an overwhelming majority of dentists voted in an official ballot to support an agreement reached between the BDA and Stormont on a new contract, following seven years of negotiation. While funding was set aside by the Department of Health in early 2016 and allocated to local trusts, the Department of Finance has since claimed no agreement has been reached.

The BDA has been able to push officials to unlock money for needed training, but it is now calling on ministers to honour the agreement, and finally bring these contracts into the 21^st Century.

Grainne Quinn, chair of the BDA’s Northern Ireland Salaried Dentists Committee, said: "These community dentists are the only health professionals left in the UK working under contracts drafted three decades ago. Last year we reached an agreement to bring their terms and conditions into the 21^st Century, but ever since ministers and officials have been stalling.