The ‘Dentists for All’ petition from The Mirror and British Dental Association (BDA) was delivered to Downing Street on January 7, 2025.
The BDA has warned that the service is more fragile than it was at the time of the July 2024 election. The association said the budget has added significant new costs to practices while providing no corresponding support, and pay uplifts for the 2024/25 financial year are running eight months late.
The petition prompted Wes Streeting to tell parliament that “NHS dentistry is at death’s door”.
The BDA was the first organisation to meet the health secretary face-to-face in July 2024. While it has welcomed the tone set by the new government, six months on it stresses that urgency and ambition are required to save the service.
Lord Darzi’s independent review of the NHS in 2024 echoed the position of the Health Select Committee in two dedicated inquiries (the Nuffield Trust and the dental profession itself), observing, “If dentistry is to continue as a core NHS service, urgent action is needed to develop a contract that balances activity and prevention, is attractive to dentists and rewards those dentists who practice in less served areas.”
There has yet to be a rollout on pledges to provide 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments, and supervised brushing programmes in early years settings.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) data in December 2024 revealed that 94 per cent of new patients who attempted to secure NHS care were unsuccessful. The BDA’s analysis of government data has placed the unmet need for NHS dentistry at over 13m, or one in four of England’s adult population.
According to the professional body, despite stated goals to shift the strategic focus of the NHS from sickness to prevention, from hospital to community, the government’s ‘Plan for Change’ does not refer to dentistry.
Eddie Crouch, chair of the BDA, said, “The public and this profession have a simple message for the prime minister.
“The clock is ticking on NHS dentistry and this government must make good on its promises. If reform is kicked into the long grass, there won’t be a service left to save.”