Refugees Return To Ukraine For Dental Care
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- Published: Monday, 13 February 2023 10:01
- Written by Peter Ingle
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It is only a few days since Health Minister Neil O’Brien was asked by an MP how Ukrainian refuges in England could access dental care. The minister replied that they could go to “any dentist that is accepting NHS patients.”
In recognition that this might represent a very shallow pool, he did add that if they were “struggling” they could call NHS England’s customer contact centre or call 111 if it was an emergency.
So much for the theory. The BBC have now provided an example of how this is working in practice. A South Gloucestershire council meeting has heard evidence that the dental service is “in a death spiral.” Councillor Sandie Davis told the meeting that a family of Ukrainian refuges had travelled back to their war torn homeland because they could be seen there sooner. It was not an isolated example, she also told the meeting of a foster daughter who had moved to the area but could not find a dentist, and had then had to return to Swindon for treatment.
At the same meeting councillor Andrea Reid said, “In terms of people performing their own treatment we are way past that point. It’s not a future tense we are trying to avoid, it’s already happening.”
Councillor James Griffiths said, “It’s a national problem and we are in a death spiral with it, and making small alterations isn’t going to resolve the big problem.” He added that dentists had told him that they got paid between £30,000 and £60,000 a year more to treat the same patients privately than on the NHS. In an example of more traditional reporting on dental issues no effort was made to explain the basis for these figures.
NHS South England head of stakeholder engagement Lou Farbus told councillors the NHS was supporting practices and encouraging them to work together in partnership, ”before they reach a point of crisis,” as well as improving contracts and paying them more for treatment.
On Twitter the BDA linked to the story with the blunt caption, “NHS dentistry in 2023.” Apart from a handful of politicians, exemplified by Neil O’Brien, and NHS managers like South of England’s Lou Farbus, few would disagree.
Image President.gov.ua, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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