Office of NHS Trading?

Since the publication of the recent Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report, it seemed like dentistry was taking a real beating from the media. In particular the media's portrayal of the OFT's findings seemed to focus on alleged miss-selling of private treatment. If it were not for the prospect of industrial action from doctors, dentistry would probably have dominated the health news a little longer.

The OFT seems to be suggesting that NHS contracts should be time limited in order to increase competition. This idea seems to be fundamentally flawed, or perhaps just very poorly thought out, when applied to the current model of dentistry. The dental market currently benefits from relatively better access to loans when compared with other markets. This is in part due to the fact that dental businesses have some certainty of income from NHS dental contracts. As soon as that certainty diminishes, the risk exposure increases and the availability of loans will become more difficult and more expensive. This in turn will drive up the cost of running a dental practice. The long-term implication is that dental providers will find it more difficult to provide low cost services; private charges will start to increase and NHS services will then become less available or providers will move away from providing NHS services.