Contract holders will receive an uplift of 4.64% overall, backdated to April 2024. The Doctors and Dentists Review Body recommended a 6% uplift for pay last year but Ministers have decided to allocate only 1.68% for practice expenses, resulting in this inadequate overall uplift.
With dental inflation estimated at 9.2% this will amount to a significant funding cut and will not meet the recommendation of the independent pay review body. Utilities costs are estimated to have increased by 10% in the last financial year, staffing costs 15% and laboratory costs by 16.5%.
The professional body say this short-sighted approach will only accelerate the exodus from NHS dentistry. Many providers are already delivering NHS care at a financial loss, having to cross-subsidise loss-making NHS activity with private work. Further pressure will come in April via the huge increases in overheads delivered by the recent Budget. There is still no clarity on what mitigations will be offered.
On Tuesday the BDA delivered a petition to Downing Street, co-signed by over a quarter of a million supporters, calling for urgency and ambition to save the service.
The delivery prompted Wes Streeting to tell Parliament that “NHS dentistry is at death’s door”, but there has yet to be movement on key government pledges.
Formal negotiations to reform the discredited NHS dental contract, which is fuelling the access and workforce crises, in the service have yet to begin. Lord Darzi’s recent independent review of the NHS echoed the position of the Health and Social Care 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.” We are yet to hear when we might expect a rollout on pledges to provide 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments, and supervised brushing programmes in early years settings.
The BDA has said NHS dentistry has effectively ceased to exist for new patients, with ONS data in December showing 94% of new patients who attempted to secure NHS care were unsuccessful. BDA analysis of government data places unmet need for NHS dentistry at over 13 million, or 1 in 4 of England’s adult population.
Shawn Charlwood, Chair of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, said:
“Wes Streeting recognised NHS dentistry is at death’s door.
“Handing dentists a pay cut after record breaking delays won’t change that prognosis.
“These cuts will come at a high price in goodwill that is now in short supply.”