Mixed Response to Kinnock’s 700k Appointments Promise
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- Published: Monday, 24 February 2025 09:26
- Written by Peter Ingle
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As recently reported on GDPUK, the Department of Health & Social Care have announced that NHS England has now written to integrated care boards (ICBs) in each region, and told them to, “stand up thousands of urgent appointments over the next year.”
Cue Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care, saying, "We promised we would end the misery faced by hundreds of thousands of people unable to get urgent dental care. Today we’re starting to deliver on that commitment.”
A few days on, the response has been mixed. The Health Service Journal has now confirmed that there will be no new money for the much quoted 700 000 appointments.
It reports that the Government has confirmed that ICBs may have been told to commission their share of the 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments, but they will receive no extra funding for them. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said each ICB was being set a minimum target of additional urgent appointments from April, based on estimates of unmet need in each system.
Labour attached a £125m value to its “dentistry package” but this is not new money. As the letter to ICB’s states: “This is to be funded from within dental allocations.” This indicates a shift from the heady days of the party’s manifesto. Last year when the HSJ had sought clarification about the funding of the proposed 700k pledge, they were told that no final decision had been made.
While there have been underspends in recent years on dental budgets the figure for 2024 -25 is not yet known. In addition, from recent statements on NHS priorities, it is implied that any unspent dental budget was not being ring fenced, and could be used to prop up other parts of the NHS.
ICBs must now increase their number of urgent appointments by their target level, over and above the level delivered in the 12 months to June 2024. According to NHS England, Commissioners can buy the extra appointments through new or recommissioned contracts or modification of existing contracts, and/or using “flexible commissioning,” but neither approach is mandated.
The DHSC said the extra appointments were being targeted at “dental deserts”, citing the East of England and particularly Norfolk and Waveney. NHS England has calculated the individual targets based on the share of those who reported in the GP patient survey that they had failed to get a dental appointment; the share of appointments which are urgent; and the level of activity they are already managing to deliver.
After the BDA’s tepid welcome to the announcement, the NHS Confederation have now given their response. The Confederation represents organisations that plan, commission and provide NHS services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with integrated care systems amongst its membership. It said that, “finances must accurately reflect the cost of treatment as the additional 700,000 urgent dental appointments promised by the Government alone will not improve the long-term oral health of the population.” They asked for further clarity to understand how the government plans would address dental deserts, and said that there had to be a commitment to reforming the contract and that the outdated UDA model need an overhaul.
Mr Kinnock will no doubt be delighted by the mass of positive headlines with many regional media sources quoting the exact number of extra appointment that they now expect in their area. In London, the Standard headlined the extra 52000 dentist appointments to help tackle a ’Dickensian state of affairs,’ and the BBC quoted an extra 68,000 appointments for the East of England.
The positive press will make a welcome change for those at the DHSC, it remains to be seen how long it will last.
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