Cambridgeshire health champion calls for rethink amid NHS dental charge rise
Healthwatch believes the new charges do little to help patients
A health and social care champion for Cambridgeshire believes a rise in NHS dental charges “doesn’t do anything to reduce health inequalities” in the county.
Charges for dental treatment in England jumped to a high of 8.5 per cent this week ahead of a Parliament debate on reforming NHS dentistry.
Julian Stanley, chief executive of Healthwatch Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, thinks the move will affect those with less the most.
“Our big concern is that it doesn’t do anything to reduce health inequalities; the rise in charges will have an impact on those who have the lowest income,” he said.
“I think one of the things the government has got to do is to look at this dental contract and has failed in many ways to make dentistry accessible on the NHS.”
A survey by YouGov of adults in England found 38 per cent saying that dentistry should be fully funded by government through general taxation, free at the point of delivery.
In the month of March, Healthwatch Cambridgeshire and Peterborough received 25 enquiries relating to finding a dentist.
“For those in (reasonably paid) jobs, people will make it like they have to pay for that service, but that excludes thousands of people struggling with cost of living and can’t afford to pay those charges,” Mr Stanley said.
“We’d like to have some more work readily available (and) get more people’s views, so we can go back and give more evidence to government about the impact of the changes,” Mr Stanley said.
"We need to encourage people to stay in the NHS"
Dr Dipali Chokshi, of Littleport Dental Surgery, told Greatest Hits Radio Cambridgeshire that despite rising treatment costs, dental practices are not receiving more money amid increasing energy bills and other costs.
“The NHS is a beautiful service and is heavily subsidising the cost of dental care for patients, so yes, they might be upset about the price rises, but what they would pay privately is a lot more,” she said.
Dr Chokshi also feels there is currently “a recruitment crisis in dentistry”.
Mr Stanley said the idea of dentists could be encouraged to take up NHS contracts soon after completing their training, but more people need to be convinced to join the industry first.
“I’ve spoken to a few dentists who’ve told me they’d like to have dentists once they’re trained, hooked into NHS contracts so they become providers for a number of years after their training,” he added.
“It costs a lot to train a dentist and we need to encourage people to go into dentistry, but we need people to stay in the NHS and dentistry.”