Government offers £20,000 to dentists to improve services in England
Dentists will be offered the cash to take on new patients and to operate in 'dental deserts'
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
There will also be some financial benefits for patients too, around a million people who have not seen a dentist for two or more years are expected to benefit as officials offer a “new patient payment” of £15 to £50.
£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.
This week hundreds of people have been queuing in Bristol after a dentist opened up its books for NHS patients.
Leading dentists said that the queues would be replicated around the country if more practices were taking on NHS patients.
Eddie Crouch, chairman of the British Dental Association (BDA), told the PA news agency: “There are towns across this country where any new practice opening would see a repeat of scenes we saw in Bristol.”
Other initiatives announced as part of the NHS dental recovery plan include:
- Dentists will be paid more for their NHS work
- So-called “dental vans” to be rolled out in rural and coastal areas.
- 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.