Dentistry needs fair deal

The BDA evidence argues that general dental practice is coming under increasingly unbearable pressure across the UK. In England, five years of inadequate funding uplifts and demands for efficiency savings have backed dentistry into a tighter and tighter corner. In Northern Ireland, savage cuts to Health Service dentistry imposed earlier this year threaten patient-practitioner relationships and some practices’ viability. In Scotland, the implementation of a cash-limited budget for general dental services will limit the care that can be provided to patients. And in Wales the implementation of the National Oral Health Plan, while welcomed by the BDA as a positive move, puts the onus on practitioners and adds to the pressures already facing them.

Challenges for primary salaried care across the UK are also highlighted by the BDA’s submission. It highlights concerns about posts being made redundant or left vacant, appropriate equipment not being available and increasing waiting times for new patient appointments. A failure to modernise salaried services in Northern Ireland – the only country now not to have agreed updated terms and conditions for salaried services following an agreement to do so in Scotland in August 2013 – is also highlighted as a concern.