Welsh NHS Standoff May Preview English Battle
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- Published: Thursday, 30 January 2025 07:50
- Written by Peter Ingle
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All four UK nations have different contractual systems for providing NHS dental care, and all four are in trouble.
Wales and England have variations on the UDA theme. Changes in one have sometimes been followed by similar moves in the other, with Wales leading on tweaks to the contract and top slicing UDA targets to fund pet projects. One difference, until July 2024, was the Welsh NHS answering to a Labour administration in Cardiff, whilst the English NHS came under a Conservative Department of Health. Now, blaming Westminster for problems faced in Wales is somewhat harder, and one might expect that ministers in Cardiff and London share information and ideas.
Against this background, The BDA have described the latest move from Jeremy Miles, the Welsh government Secretary for Health and Social Care, as: “A spectacular display of bad faith from Ministers on pay.” The British Dental Association Wales has accused the Welsh Government of trying to pass the buck on the record breaking delays over delivering pay uplifts for dental contractors.
The BDA statement follows a letter from Jeremy Miles sent to all NHS contractors accusing the professional body of rejecting, “all offers on the grounds that 6% is not sufficient to meet the DDRB recommendation on dentist’s pay and are not willing to negotiate further.”
To the BDA’s concern, and in a complete break from precedent, the Welsh Government is attempting to tie any pay uplift for the 2024/25 financial year to dentists signing up to changes that will likely underpin their untested, plans for reform. This includes transferring all patient data and waiting lists to new systems.
As GDPUK readers will be well aware, an uplift of 6% still translates into a pay cut by failing to cover the increased costs of delivering NHS care. Utilities costs are estimated to have increased by 10% during the last financial year, staffing costs by 15%, and laboratory costs by 16.5%.
In his letter to contractors Jeremy Miles says that following the Welsh General Dental Practice Committee’s rejection of the 6% offer, it will now be imposed, and accompanied by new demands. These include:
- All non-orthodontic dental contract holders, must repeat the antimicrobial audit undertaken in 2023/24, compare with previous findings and hold a discussion with the practice team to identify any actions required to improve antibiotic prescribing. To be completed by the end of June 2025.
- All contract holders will be required to fully participate with the Welsh National Workforce Reporting System (WNWRS) including quarterly updates as a minimum.
- All contract holders must record patient NHS numbers on forms submitted to NHSBSA. As a minimum patients must be asked for their NHS number and any appointment text/email/letter should remind the patient to have their NHS number available.
- All practice held waiting lists are to be transferred to the Dental Access Portal by the end of June 2025.
Russell Gidney, Chair of the BDA’s Welsh General Dental Practice Committee (WGDPC), having described the Welsh Government s actions as a spectacular display of bad faith, added: “The sole authors of record-breaking delays on pay are based in Cardiff Bay. For the very first time Ministers have sought to tie the hands of demoralised dentists. They made pay rises conditional on signing up to changes that will underpin a programme of reform that could sink this service. This forces colleagues to sign up to a deal that failed to keep pace with soaring costs.
“It should come as little surprise to the Welsh Government that no health professional is going to roll over and welcome a pay cut.”
On X, Lauren Harrhy, BDA Representative, and member of Gwent LDC, said “WG have been economic with the truth here...”
Four nations with four different systems, and all of them failing. It is almost as if there is a common and unaddressed problem that they share.
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