MP Gives Campaign Advice to Dentistry
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- Published: Thursday, 15 June 2023 07:40
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Previous years have seen ministers address the Annual Conference of Local Dental Committees, but not this year. Both the current Under-Secretary of State, Neil O’Brien, as well as one of his predecessors, declined an invitation to speak to the Conference.
Given the current state of the polls it may be that an opposition speaker will be more relevant in the longer term, and Rachael Maskell (Labour Co-op) kindly stepped in. Rachael has sat on the Commons Health and Social Care Committee since 2015, as well as often contributing to parliamentary debates on the access crisis. Her York Central constituency, already something of a dental desert, is being hit again, as it is directly affected by the BUPA closures. Indeed she began her speech by expressing her delight in at last finding where all the dentists had gone. She then put in a heartfelt plea for some of them to come and work in York. As well as Devon, Norfolk, and other deserts, she added, underlining the national nature of the access crisis.
The MP then confirmed her credentials as someone who largely, “gets it.” She ran through many of the major problems facing NHS dentistry, and those trying to provide it. She talked about clawback and the need to put money into the service to get back to 2010 levels of funding. She pointed out that England had the lowest per capita dental spend of the four nations.
Then the MP read from a document about the NHS dental service. It explained how to be seen, and covered the scope of the service. It said that some things would not be covered and would require payment. It asked for patience, as presently there was a shortage of dentists, and priority would be given to children and pregnant women. The clues were there, applications to join a dentist could be made at the Post office, and the dentist was referred to as ‘him’. The document had been published in 1948 at the dawn of the NHS. It underlined how much and how little had changed in 75 years.
Rachael Maskell returned to the present day, observing that if BUPA could not make their practices work it indicated that there were problems with the system. She was, “Astounded by the paucity of data” about the workforce delivering NHS dentistry. Decisions were being taken without knowing how many dentists were working, or how many hours they spent providing NHS care. There was nothing on DCP’s. This was a failure of the system she said, and lambasted those she held responsible, NHS England and the government.
The GDC did not escape her critique. Progress on getting more overseas graduates into practices was moving at a “snail’s pace.” Here in the UK, she said, we needed to be training more dentists ourselves. Revealingly she added that training must be of good quality, giving the example of how a much touted scheme to train more health visitors had been done on the cheap. It had briefly met its targets and delivered the promised number, but now there were 1000 fewer that when it had started.
She spoke of a “training bond” for new dental graduates which would “expect people to work in the NHS”. This sounded suspiciously like compulsory NHS work post qualification, one of the two comments she made that produced some audible dissent.
Moving to less contentious subjects, she spoke about eliminating UDAs and the need for a new system of funding. This would need to include flexibility and likely sessional elements. Her second contentious comment was praise for the outgoing CDO, Sara Hurley, at which there was even more vocal dissent from her audience.
Moving to party politics the MP asserted that, “It’s time government got a grip” and she hoped the Select Committee report when published would provide the “necessary rocket.” She accepted that Labours plans were not yet firm, but spoke of working with the profession, having spoken on the subject to the Shadow Health Minister that morning.
In contrast to the GDC chair and CDO, the MP did invite question and comments. Joe Hendron, a past chair of the conference, spoke of previous select committees, the Steele pilots, and their subsequent termination. He asked that the data from them, which had not suited the government of the time, be revisited by a new Labour administration. Racheal Maskell said that she would look at this. GDPC member, Don McGrath, asked what Labour’s plan was. He was told that it was still being developed, but might appear over the summer.
Closing, she told her audience that dentists would have to fight, and no one would give them a “golden ticket.” It was dentists’ responsibility to fight for things they believe in. Improvements would not happen if they were not “persistent” and “disruptive” and that they needed to collectivise their power. Based on her experiences in politics, she advised that when dentists felt they had made the same point too many times, they might just be cutting through.
Racheal Maskell had repeatedly quoted Anuerin Bevan, the Minister of Health who many regard as the father of the NHS. He is reputed to have said, “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it.” There is no firm record of him saying this, although it was used in a play written about him some years after his death.
Dentists might also bear in mind a comment he did make in an interview in 1953. He said, “We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.”
Image Credit: Russell Gidney
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