Blink And You Missed It. The "New Dental Contract" Has Arrived
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- Published: Thursday, 01 December 2022 09:04
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Governments have for many years liked to re-announce proposals or projects. This is based upon the hope that they will spend the money once, but gain several positive headlines.
Often this approach convinces many of the public into thinking that there are multiple actions or investments being taken, rather than just one.
In an audacious update to this political game of smoke and mirrors, the government has now announced that the New Dental Contract has not just arrived, but been implemented. Any NHS dentists getting excited that they may have missed a long awaited change, should relax and return to patiently waiting for their uplift.
The press release on the GOVUK website is attributed to the Department of Health and Social Care and Neil O’Brien. For those struggling to keep up with the ministerial revolving doors, Neil is the Conservative MP for Market Harborough, and Under-Secretary of State for Primary Care and Public Health, that is, the junior minister who will often deal with dentistry. His background includes four years as a special adviser to George Osbourne, when he was Chancellor.
The announcement is headed, “New measures to improve access to dental care. A new package of measures to improve patient access to dental care has been introduced by the government.” The contents will already be very familiar to dental teams.
Timed to coincide with the belated availability of enhanced fees for some band 2 treatments, the release helpfully explains that, “dentists may not have been able to afford to take on patients who had not seen a dentist for an extended period who require more extensive treatment as a result.” It omits to mention that irrespective of affordability, dentists were and are, obliged to take on and treat such patients.
Neil O’Brien is quoted, saying he is “determined to make sure everybody seeking NHS dental care can receive it when they need it.” In a moment of insight he does add that the changes “will not solve all the problems overnight.”
And then, leading into details of the changes to the Find a Dentist website comes this; “The new contract will also require dental practices to regularly update information on the Find a Dentist tool on the NHS website, ensuring it accurately reflects available services.”
This did not escape the attention of the BDA. BDA News carried a rebuttal expressing its surprise that the department was trying to pass off marginal changes as a new contract, commenting that “nothing could be further from the truth.”
Interviewed on the BBC, Eddie Crouch, Chair of BDA Principal Executive Committee was his usual robust self. The announced changes were simply “tweaking” the discredited 2006 contract, and for many dentists their NHS commitment had reached a “tipping point.” Revealing a twin track approach to the future of NHS dentistry, Eddie spoke of the need for “honest conversations” with the government and public about what NHS dentistry could realistically be expected to deliver, in the absence of more funding.
“What we wanted was contract reform, what we got was tweaks” says @eddiecrouch
— BDA (@TheBDA) November 29, 2022
“What we need is urgency, what we’re getting is slow improvement.”
It will take more than tinkering at the margins to save NHS dentistry? https://t.co/1XQlV2cRA9 pic.twitter.com/YPZHVuxrNk
The government’s coping strategy is looking clearer. Everyone, even its own MP’s, has agreed that the 2006 contract is unfit for purpose. Meaningful change would require both political capital and hard cash that they lack. So after 16 years we have changes that BDA General Dental Practice Committee Chair Shawn Charlwood, has described as “rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic” while government including the responsible minister, try to pass this off as a genuine new contract.
In the run up to 2006 the question on many dentist’s lips was whether the proposed contract was a product of “cock up or conspiracy?” In 2022 those dentists working in the NHS may be reading Neil O’Brien’s press release and asking, “Dishonest or deluded”?
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