Profound effects

With the country’s finances in such trouble, it is inevitable that the budget cuts and fiscal policies being introduced by the coalition Government will have profound effects on dentistry in the years to come. The effects of these budget cuts will be felt in many ways.

As primary care trust budgets are being pared back, some areas of the country have had their dental tenders abandoned completely to save money and preserve funds. These tenders, which were commissioned to increase access to NHS dentistry following the results of population needs assessments which concluded that access needed to be improved, have been closed – in complete contradiction to the Government’s declared aim of increasing access.

The rise in VAT to 20 per cent will also affect dental practices. As dentistry is a VAT-exempt service, dentists will have to absorb this additional cost at a time when expenses have already rocketed for the reasons I have outlined in this column over the past few months. NHS practices are obviously unable to increase their prices to reflect this added expense, but I think private practitioners may also feel unable to increase their fees when their patients may be feeling the pinch in a time when job security is a concern and when patients too are faced with rising costs associated with the increase in VAT.