After waiting for 16 years, the NHS has finally made changes to the NHS dental contract. But is it enough to see real improvements?
The government announced ‘significant change’ to the NHS dental contract this month.
And the announcement came with praise from across dentistry. College presidents described it as a ‘significant improvement’ and dentists said they ‘punched the air with the sense of victory’.
Despite such positive reactions, the changes, although hard won, are a very small step on the road to what would make a workable NHS dental contract.
One of the biggest sticking points over recent years has been the real-terms pay cuts NHS dentists have experienced.
This doesn’t look like it’s going to end any time soon, with the latest NHS salary increase only reaching 4.5% – that’s with inflation currently standing at close to 10%.
Although the latest contract announcement does state a minimum indicative UDA value, it doesn’t suggest a pay rise anytime soon.
And where will the money come from to bring the value up for those contracts under the minimum UDA value?
Will it result in a pay cut for the top earners?
The changes also aim to address ‘misunderstandings around the use of skill mix in NHS dental care’.
Although certainly welcomed, as Kevin Lewis mentions in his column last month (and alludes to this month), what’s motivating this change?
Is it to provide better, more accessible care to patients? Or is it to save the government money by offering cheaper levels of treatment?
Where do we go from here?
But there are certainly some helpful steps forward with these changes.
Historically, oral health hasn’t been top of the agenda for the government, and that certainly isn’t the case now either.
So the team working behind the scenes certainly deserves praise for managing to get any small wins.
But I worry that this is where any progress will stall.
The profession has waited 16 years to see these changes – and sticking a plaster won’t be enough for NHS dentistry to survive another 16 years.
My concern is the government will feel it has done its part to appease the profession, making it harder to make any further meaningful change in the future.
And if that is the case, this will not stem the tide of NHS dentists shifting to private dentistry.
Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.
