Will the PAC MPs Fix NHS Dentistry?
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- Published: Thursday, 06 February 2025 09:31
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Its importance is that it is responsible for overseeing government spending and ensuring that this is effective and honest. It is intended to provide checks and balances on transparency and accountability in the government’s financial operations. The PAC has been described by one constitutional expert as exerting a “cleansing effect on all government departments.” It is now going to hold an inquiry into dentistry, under the ambitious title “Fixing NHS Dentistry.”
For those readers shrugging their shoulders at another Committee it may be worth providing some context. In its preamble the Inquiry notes the drop in percentage of the population seeing an NHS dentist post pandemic and that in 2023-24 there were 483 less dentists providing NHS dental care in England than there had been in 2019-20. It reminds readers of the last government’s recovery plan and its ambition to deliver more than 1.5 million courses of treatment in 2024-25. The Health and Social Care Committee inquiry of 2022, and its report delivered in 2023 are also mentioned. The more recent National Audit Office report of November 2024 concluded that the recovery plan was unlikely to deliver its 1.5 million COTs, and that even if achieved there would still be 2.6 million less per annum than were being delivered before the pandemic. The PACs task, then, is to try and provide an overview of the effectiveness of the current approach and provide pointers to how matters might be improved.
A notable previous health related PAC report in 2019 on penalty charge notices in healthcare, found that the rules for claiming free prescriptions and dental treatment were confusing and needed to be changed. The PAC did not hold back describing the process as, “a heavy-handed rush to judgement” and “not fit for purpose.” The PAC was quite clear regarding responsibility for the unsatisfactory situation: “The Department and NHS England have been shockingly complacent about the fundamental problems with the PCN process, justifying their approach because most exemptions are claimed correctly and the system generates additional revenue for the NHS.”
The PAC will hear from senior officials about progress on the recovery plan and expects to have a particular interest in:
- The dental contract
- The drop in the number of (NHS contracted) dentists
- The current picture on Government spending to support access to NHS dentistry.
Members of the PAC are listed here on the Commons website.
Oral evidence is now timetabled to be heard on February 13th with two named officials attending. They are Sir Chris Whitty, Acting Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care and Jonathan Marron who is Director General – Primary Care and Prevention at DHSC.
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