Posted on 06/06/2008 2:00:04 AM PDT by Roy Tucker
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
The shake-up of NHS dentistry has been condemned as a failure after official figures showed fewer people are receiving health service treatment.
More than 300,000 people lost their NHS dentist in three months alone Eight hundred thousand fewer people saw an NHS dentist in the two years up to December than in the last two years under the old dental contract.
The shake-up was aimed at simplifying the payments system, encouraging more preventive work and reducing the 'drill and fill' culture in NHS dentistry.
But the contract was so unpopular many dentists left the NHS altogether and primary care trusts were supposed to replace the NHS provision by taking on other staff.
The new contract came into effect from April 2006 and the figures show in the two years up to then 28.1m patients were seen by an NHS dentist, the equivalent of 55.8 per cent of the population.
In the two years up until December last year 27.3m patients were seen on the health service - equivalent to 53.7 per cent.
It means there was a drop of 3.1 per cent on the number people who saw an NHS dentist.
The latest figures are not quite a clear cut comparison of the old and new contracts as the 27.3m people seen in the two years up until December will include people who were seen in the last three months of the old system.
But the emerging trend is showing that the new NHS contract has not increased access to NHS dentistry despite pledges from Tony Blair in 1999 that everyone would have an NHS dentist within two years.
The proportion of children treated on the NHS was higher than amongst adults, with almost seven in ten children treated on the NHS in the two years up until December, but this is still a drop of 100,000 compared to the last two years of the old contract.
Access to NHS dentistry varies around the country with 38.9 per cent of adults in South Central treated on the NHS compared to 58.3 per cent in the North East.
Amongst children, fewer were treated on the NHS in London than anywhere else, with 64.8 per cent receiving care in the two years up until December compared to 73.4 per cent in the North East.
Mike Penning, the shadow health minister, said: "These figures are yet another damning indictment of Labour's appalling management of NHS dentistry. The fact that over 300,000 people lost their dentist in three months alone shows just how bad things are getting.
"The Government urgently needs to sort things out and live up to its promise of NHS dentistry for all. On the basis of these figures, for every day that they dither, another 4,000 people are losing their NHS dentist."
Barry Cockcroft, chief dental officer, said: "Since the dental reforms, we have made expanding NHS dentistry a national priority and have invested an extra £200 million this year to help strengthen local services and open more practices.
"The Information Centre access figures released today do not reflect the new services that are opening all the time. Rather, the figures are retrospective and include the temporary decrease in access which occurred following the transition to the new system in 2006.
"Due to the time delay between actual access levels and the development of official figures, it will take time before the current access situation is reflected in such figures."
Based on the British TV shows I watch, I had no idea they had ANY dentists in the United Kingdom!!
Examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0te6OEF9hJE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA&feature=related
Oh, c’mon now. Everybody knows the Labour PM Clement Attlee had dentistry outlawed in the UK back in 1945.
Austin Powers bad teeth alert.
Yup, nothing like pouring more money down a rathole. It is not the Government’s money (although bureaucrats act as if it is) it is the taxpayers’ money.
Very clearly, “expanding NHS dentistry” has not been the result and yet they never stop to figure there might be a better way.
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