Bleak Second Birthday For New Dental Contract, Says British Dental Association

Main Category: Dentistry
Article Date: 01 Apr 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Susie Sanderson, Chair of the Executive Board of the British Dental Association, today issued a statement to mark the second anniversary of the new NHS dental contract, introduced in England and Wales on 1 April 2006.

"This is a bleak second birthday for the new dental contract with criticism from the profession and patients continuing to gain momentum. The level of concern is starkly revealed in the evidence given to the Health Select Committee, currently investigating the impact of the Government's troubled and controversial reforms of NHS dentistry.

"In the course of this second year, we have seen:

- statistics released that revealed 47% of dentists failed to meet their first year UDA targets

- figures that show access to NHS dentistry has still not been improved by the reforms

- a Patients Association survey of MPs that found dentistry was the health issue that caused most concern to their constituents

- the decision by the House of Commons' Health Select Committee to undertake an inquiry into the dental reforms.

"The BDA will continue to call for action to tackle the flaws in this target-driven system and is also working proactively at a local level to encourage the commissioning of dentistry which genuinely meets local people's needs."

1. Dental contractors (a dentist/dental practice) are commissioned by their primary care trusts to deliver a fixed number of units of dental activity annually, which is written into their contract. It is the only measure used to establish whether a contractor has complied with the contract. (The BDA argues a wider range of measures should be used, for example, patient experience). BDA analysis of information supplied by the NHS Business Services Authority showed in the first year of the contract that 47% of dental contractors failed to provide at least 96% of the contracted number of UDAs. These are the latest available figures. If a contractor exceeds the number of contracted UDAs they won't get paid for this additional work, and if they fail to reach their target, they risk having to pay money back to the PCT which can run into thousands of pounds.

2 The Department of Health acknowledged in 2006 that approximately two million people who wanted to access NHS dentistry were unable to do so. For details, click here.
According to the latest statistics available from The Information Centre, 543,000 fewer patients were seen by an NHS dentist in England in the 24 months up to 30 September 2007, compared to the 24 months up to 31 March 2006. For details, click here.
A survey of patients by the Healthcare Commission in 2005 found that 69 per cent of those not registered with an NHS dentist would like to be. This equated to approximately 15 million people. For details, click here.

3 Patients Association: The new dental contract: full of holes and causing pain, March 2008.

4 The Health Select Committee has just concluded taking oral evidence from a wide range of interested parties, including patient groups, commissioners of dentistry, dentists and the Department of Health.

5 The British Dental Association (BDA) is the professional association for dentists in the UK. It represents over 22,000 dentists working in general practice, in community and hospital settings, in academia and research, and in the armed forces.

British Dental Association