North Yorkshire dentist anger at Government recovery plan

One of the proposals is to roll out a dental van to get people to appointments in North Yorkshire

Published 7th Feb 2024

The government is offering cash to dentists as part of a plan to boost services across England.

Dentists will be offered cash to take on new patients and given £20,000 “golden hellos” to work in communities with a lack of NHS dental services

Mark Green is secretary of North Yorkshire local dental committee and also works at a practice in North Yorkshire and says his is angry at the plans: "I stayed in an area that would be a dental desert if I wasn't here, and I'm still so that's why Kirkbymoorside isn't a dental desert. I'm not saying I'm solely responsible for that but I could have left and gone private but I stuck it out on the NHS and where is my thank you."

"This is not good enough, it's not enough of a thought out process, they said they'd listen to the dentists, they haven't, it's just because it's an election year and it's not going to be enough I'm afraid."

The Government have also announced dental vans will be rolled out across the country including in North Yorkshire. Staffed by NHS dentists, they will offer check-ups and simple treatments such as fillings.

But Mark Green isn't impressed: "It sounds like we've just copied what Dentaid do which is when they go into poorer parts of Africa, so that what it looks like we are doing the same over here. We shouldn't be doing mobile services, we should have proper services, like I said we are papering over the cracks with a very poorly thought out plan."

£20,000 payments for dentists

One-off payments of £20,000 are to be awarded to 240 dentists for working in under-served communities for at least three years, according to the plans, which are expected to increase dental appointments across the country by 2.5 million next year.

But leading dentists said the recovery package will not be enough to help people struggling to access dental care.

Other initiatives announced as part of the NHS dental recovery plan include:

  • Dentists will be paid more for their NHS work
  • People will be able to use the NHS app to see which practices in their local area are accepting new patients.
  • A “Smile for Life” programme to give advice to new and prospective parents.
  • The Government will also launch a consultation on a potential water fluoridation programme to help prevent tooth decay.

The dental recovery plan was to be launched on Wednesday but many of the details were accidentally leaked after health officials sent an early version of the document to MPs of all parties on Tuesday afternoon.

Commenting on the plan, Shawn Charlwood, chairman of the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee, said: “This recovery plan is not worthy of the title. It won’t halt the exodus from the workforce or offer hope to millions struggling to access care.”

Officials said that the plan was backed by £200 million of Government funding, but Mr Crouch said that the cash was “not new money”, adding: “It’s actually an allocation of the contracts that are already with the dental practices.”

But the Health and Social Care Secretary declined to say whether the dentistry plan is being funded by an underspend in the NHS dentistry budget.

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