BDA & Government Relationship Hits the Rocks

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Published: Friday, 03 January 2025 14:00
Written by Peter Ingle
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BDA & Government Relationship Hits the Rocks

After the 2024 election there seemed to be smiles all round when senior BDA and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) representatives first met. Little more than six months later that seems a distant memory. Figures on both sides might be wondering just what went wrong. 

In the months preceding last year’s election relations between the BDA and DHSC were particularly frosty. With the clock ticking down to election time, and an almost inevitable change in management at the Department on the cards, the BDA were very direct with their criticism. They no doubt felt that this was a fair reflection of their increasingly exasperated member’s views. At the 2023 LDC annual conference, rather than a member of the government, it was a Labour MP with an interest in dentistry who gave the main non dental address, after a government spokesperson pulled out. They were well received.

Then there was Wes Streeting’s promise to meet the BDA the Monday after the election. Ever a maverick, he kept his promise, and the photos and press releases radiated positivity.

Months later, the announcement of the 700 000 appointment initiative may have made headlines, but the realisation that this appears to be the sum total of actual progress under Mr Streeting, has left many dentists and their teams feeling short changed.

Contract reform, and the demise of the almost universally reviled UDA system, was always going to be a litmus test of the government’s intent. That meaningful discussions have still not started will be a sign to many of those dentists wondering about their future commitment to NHS dentistry. Waverers might have hoped for some signs of exemptions from the forthcoming NI increase and its effect on their wages bill, and bottom line. There was probably also Treasury involvement in the transformation of an announced 6% pay award into an actual 4.6%.

By the time that the Public Accounts Committee took evidence, the BDA had a new tactic. Not wishing to alienate what they have to hope is a sympathetic Department of Health, the Treasury would be the villain of the piece. Indeed they set out to describe how the Treasury was the “no 1 barrier to saving” NHS dentistry.

Since then the 700 000 appointment announcement seems to have encouraged the BDA to ramp up their criticism. It was not enough, and fundamental reform and sustainable funding was required. With an estimated unmet need of 13 million, the 700 000 appointments “won’t touch the sides.” It was like “putting out a fire with a water pistol.” As for the budget, according to Eddie Crouch it had bought the service to, “its lowest ebb.”

In the few days since, the BDA has had no shortage of stories to make its point. A museum has asked a man for a copy of the tooth he had to remove himself, so they can display it. Even the brushing schemes have failed to live up to expectations, with a call for it to be rolled out in the 750 schools that will pilot the free breakfast clubs. The government have yet to set out their plans for the programme.

The case of student Nick Whelan pictured in a hospital ICU unit as a result of dental sepsis, led to a description of a “Dickensian” state of affairs. Back at the BDA Eddie Crouch commented on UK Health ministers having a “moral duty” to ensure that a lack of basic care did not lead to such cases. The posts about dental infections being the number one reason for hospital admissions among young children that have appeared in the last few days, could have been cut and pasted from the last few years of the Conservative administration. Most recently the BDA has gone as far as ‘fixing’ a Labour party graphic celebrating the 700 000 extra appointments.

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