The Briefest Bromance: BDA and Ministers Drifting Apart
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- Published: Wednesday, 06 November 2024 08:00
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The post-election accord between the BDA and Health ministers may be short lived. With celebrity couples, when they start attending events alone or removing their wedding rings, we know that all is not well. In the case of the recently blossoming relationship between the BDA and new government, there are clues in the press releases.
Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock, has visited Bristol Dental School and was photographed talking to students on a clinic and then outside the building with scrubs clad students and staff.
He heard about the recent doubling of patients seen via 111 for urgent care, now up to 1500 a year. The school has also treated 400 children from 11 local primary schools and is establishing a formal referral pathway for homeless patients.
Following his visit, the Minister of State for Care commented on these achievements, and the investment taking place in technology, as well as the Dental School’s part in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
All of the accomplishments outlined by Mr Kinnock followed decisions and investments implemented by the previous administration.
When it came to looking to the future Mr Kinnock said: “We inherited a broken NHS dentistry service where patients can’t get an appointment for love nor money, but strengthening the workforce and reforming the NHS dental contract are key to this government’s commitment to rebuilding dentistry through our 10-Year Plan for the NHS.” With his departmental ambitions limited to contract reform rather than renewal, and a focus on reducing complaints about access, they too appear to have been inherited from the last government.
A BDA statement released a day after the visit, while not a direct response, reflects growing concerns that their high hopes of a fresh start may have been misplaced. The headline ‘Treasury offer recycling, not a rescue plan’ set the mood.
The BDA expressed “grave concerns” that the Treasury had cut plans for new investment needed to underpin the Government’s “rescue plan” for NHS dentistry. Claiming to have seen leaked messages, they said that the Government may have moved from its previous pledges of using £125m in new investment from the clampdown on non-doms. Instead existing budgets will need to be recycled, in contrast to previous messages from the Treasury about billions of pounds of new funding.
Reference was made to the nearly £500m unspent in 2022/23, much of it due to practices struggling to recruit and retain staff, and the perverse incentives of the UDA contract. Funds that despite promises, were not effectively ring fenced under the last Government, have now been largely lost from the front line.
The BDA say that recovered funds representing about one sixth of the total NHS dental budget will be used to meet the specific manifesto commitment of 700,000 extra appointments. The BDA hope had been that the money would be used to help keep squeezed NHS practices viable. With unmet need estimated at over 13 million, the promised 700,000 appointments alone will make only a modest difference. This leaves no money to reform or replace the contract, which is largely responsible for the current crisis.
The BDA also criticised the lack of a single national framework for urgent care delivery.
BDA Chair Eddie Crouch’s comment was, “Promises of new investment in NHS dentistry have turned into a raid on existing budgets. These are funds that could be used to keep practices afloat, and millions of patients seen. “Instead of a ‘rescue plan’ the Treasury are offering a modest exercise in recycling.”
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