Ministers 7, Contract Reform 0
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- Published: Friday, 24 May 2024 09:55
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As Dame Andrea Leadsom DBE MP becomes the latest senior Conservative and government minister to announce she’s standing down at the upcoming election, it will be back to ’square one’ for the dental profession in its quest to secure a workable NHS contract,
Mrs Leadsom represented South Northamptonshire since 2010 and has occupied a succession of senior roles on the government benches including Economic Secretary to the Treasury. She was promoted to the Cabinet to serve as Environment Secretary then ’Leader of the House of Commons’, Business and Energy Secretary and latterly served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department of Health and Social Care.
In her health role, Leadsom was responsible for launching and steering the government’s Dental Reform Plan (’DRP’). Mrs Leadsom spoke with pride of the ’Plan’, despite the fact that each component of it had been picked apart by The British Dental Association and other professional bodies. In her resignation letter to Rishi Sunak she included the DRP in a list of health related initiatives it "had been a great privilege" to roll out.
Polling suggests fewer than 5% of dentists believe the DRP will, in any meaningful way, confront the enormity of the dental recruitment and access crisis.
Mrs Leadsom was the seventh Minister to occupy the ministerial role responsible for primary care.
Chair of the BDA Eddie Crouch posted on his ’X’ (formerly Twitter) account "Whatever happens at the election it will be minister number 8."
24th May: Election 24: Dentistry On The Doorstep
The starting gun has been fired and 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs. Power shifts, temporarily, from the corridors of Westminster to the hearts and minds of the electorate.
For many voters, for the first time ever, dentistry, of all things, will be a factor as they consider their choices. Candidates can expect to get their ears burned by angry voters - there are 12 million of them - who have no NHS dental access.
At his first PMQs in October 2022, Mr Sunak was asked by Heather Wheeler, MP (Con) for South Derbyshire, to provide better processes to allow overseas dentists and doctors to work in the UK.
The Prime Minister, who was frequently asked about the crumbling state of NHS dentistry throughout his 2022 leadership campaign, replied "we are working to simplify the registration, for dentists in particular, that are not trained here to practise here. That’s how we will help to deliver a long-term workforce plan for the NHS and ensure everyone can get the care they need.’
Fast forward to Wednesday 22nd May 2024, and at his last PMQs before announcing the election date, the Q&A session opened with a question about dentistry.
Gen Kitchen MP (Lab) for Wellingborough told Mr Sunak that in May 2022 the Association of Dental Groups had identified her constituency as a dental desert. She welcomed the PM’s "grand scheme to send dental vans" to the area but regretted that just "months on, he’s had to U-turn because there aren’t enough vans. Why can’t the minister address this issue seriously?".
Sunak replied that as a result of the Dental Recovery Plan "we are delivering 2.5 million additional appointments’, referenced the new patient premium adding that since the plan was announced in January "over 500 more dental practices are accepting new patients".
All these claims have been hotly disrupted or disproven by the British Dental Association (BDA) but voters can expect them to be trotted out by Conservative politicians time and again over the coming weeks. They must be challenged.
Labour, meanwhile, has promised 700,000 additional appointments, ’golden hellos’ and early intervention in nurseries and schools. There’s no explanation of where the workforce will come from or indeed the practices for the said workers to practise at.
As the opening salvos are fired, neither party has placed before the electorate or the profession a viable solution in the form of contract reform. As the profession knows, until NHS dentistry is transformed into a place where clinicians wish to work, it is doomed.
GDPUK will be following the campaign and invites readers to share their own observations.
Eddie Crouch, Chair of the BDA says the organisation is "non-partisan, but we are avowedly political. We will fight for what’s right for our members and the millions they treat. Underfunding and failed contracts are political choices, and they can be solved if politicians choose to."
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