
Following a ‘damning’ report into NHS funding, dental leaders have urged the government to ‘put its money where its mouth is’ and fix NHS dentistry.
Published today (29 January), the new public accounts committee (PAC) report into NHS financial sustainability examined whether the NHS has the funding and resources needed to provide sustainable healthcare services.
The report states that NHS England’s ‘long-held ambition to move more care from hospitals to the community has stalled’. The committee found that, had NHS England not redirected funding to the day-to-day spending of local NHS systems, mental health and community services would have received more investment, including dental services.
Therefore, the committee recommends that NHS England ensures a greater proportion of funding is spent in the community year on year, as is ‘in line with its own policy ambition’.
This comes as a full, independent investigation into the state of the NHS concluded the service is in a ‘critical condition’. Lord Darzi, who conducted the report, said he was ‘shocked’ by what he found during the investigation.
Regarding dentistry, he said: ‘If dentistry is to continue as a core NHS service, urgent action is needed to develop a contract that balances activity and prevention, is attractive to dentists and rewards those dentists who practice in less served areas.’
‘It’s clearly broken’
Following the report, dental leaders have stressed that the government must show that it’s ready to act on the PAC’s findings.
Shawn Charlwood, chair of the British Dental Association’s (BDA) general dental practice committee, said: ‘Ministers say they want to shift the focus from hospital to community, but their spending plans tell a very different story.
‘Primary care is the front door of the NHS and it’s clearly broken. Government needs to put its money where its mouth is and start fixing it.’
He adds: ‘The health committee provided an instruction manual to save this service. What’s remained missing to date is the sustainable funding to deliver it.’
Also in response to today’s report, the Dental Defence Union (DDU) said the NHS should ‘enact long promised reforms aimed at controlling the costs of clinical negligence cases’. Its parent company, the Medical Defence Union (MDU) submitted evidence to the PAC ahead of the report.
Leo Briggs, deputy head of the DDU, said: ‘We are pleased to see this renewed focus on reversing the NHS’s financial deficit, which continues to worsen. We agree with the committee’s findings that the NHS must be put on a financially sustainable footing if it is to deal with the multiple challenges it currently faces.
‘Key to that must be to introduce legal reforms to the current clinical negligence system to protect NHS finances from further erosion. Not only will this help the system to cope with the challenges like tackling waiting lists, but it will also help the NHS to focus more money on recruiting and retaining more staff and improve their wellbeing.
‘We are acutely aware that the current regime for clinical negligence claims along with workplace pressures has a profound impact on the welfare of dental professionals with many cutting back their hours or retiring early.’
New inquiry opens
The PAC has now opened a new inquiry into fixing NHS dentistry in which the committee will hear from government officials on delivery of better access to NHS dentistry.
Topics are likely to include:
- The dental contract
- Falls in the number of dentists
- The current picture on government spending to support access to NHS dentistry.
According to the BDA, this inquiry ‘couldn’t be more timely’.
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