Healthwatch England

This is according to the BDA which has been campaigning against this rigid, target-driven contract from day one of its introduction in 2006. Dentists are commissioned by NHS England to deliver a set number of units of dental activity (UDAs) every year, and this number of units is all that the NHS is willing to fund.

Many dentists want to take on new NHS patients, the BDA explains, but practices are forced to turn them away when their allocated or capped dental budget for the year runs out. Another limitation is that the dental budget is based on the population's needs eight years ago (2006) which means that dental provision in some parts of the country does not reflect current needs.

The contract also removed people's ability to register with an NHS dentist which ensured that people knew they were entitled to NHS care, so patients cannot be 'deregistered' as the Healthwatch survey asserts. Once a patient finishes a course of treatment the next time they see the dentist, under the 2006 contract, they are regarded as a 'new' patient. Most practices continue to care for their list of patients, but the BDA points out that because NHS funding for every practice is fixed, this means that individual practices have limited scope to take on new patients, if at all.