Dentists to be supplied money incentives to deal with NHS sufferers and work in under-served areas

Feb 06, 2024 at 7:48 PM

The authorities is planning to supply dentists money incentives to tackle new NHS sufferers and work in areas which might be under-served.

Details of the NHS “dental recovery plan”, which additionally embrace sending groups into colleges to deal with kids’s tooth, have been attributable to be introduced on Wednesday.

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However, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) seems to have inadvertently despatched an electronic mail detailing the brand new measures to some opposition MPs. This was then handed on to Sky News.

The electronic mail, marked with Wednesday’s date, says dentists will probably be supplied a “bonus” to tackle extra NHS sufferers, creating greater than 1.5 million new remedies.

There may also be a “golden hello” money incentive for dentists to work in areas which might be under-served, permitting round a million new sufferers to entry therapy.

This will kick in from later this 12 months and see as much as 240 dentists supplied £20,000 to remain and ship NHS take care of at the least three years in areas the place recruitment and retention of dentists is troublesome, the e-mail says.

The plan, amounting to a £200m funding in NHS dentistry, additionally features a “Smile for Life” initiative which goals to forestall tooth decay in nursery and reception-aged kids by encouraging wholesome tooth-brushing habits.

In addition, cell dental groups will go into colleges in under-served areas to supply recommendation and ship fluoride varnish remedies to greater than 165,000 youngsters.

A brand new dental van service may also be accessible for focused rural and coastal communities in under-served areas, with the primary vans up and working later this 12 months.

It is unclear if the contents of the e-mail will precisely match Wednesday’s announcement. Sky News has contacted the DHSC for remark.

The authorities has been under pressure to publish its NHS dentistry plan amid stories that folks within the UK have had to resort to pulling out their own teeth due to a disaster in care.

On Monday, the British Dental Association (BDA) warned that police needed to break up queues exterior a dental follow in Bristol as they hit out at “sticking plaster policies”.

The BDA needs the federal government to reform “discredited dental contracts” which they are saying are fuelling an exodus and imply NHS remedies are being delivered at a monetary loss.

They stated claims that the measures being introduced would generate “millions” of recent appointments appeared to lack credibility.

“There is nothing in the plan to draw dentists back into NHS dentistry to enhance workforce capacity,” a spokesperson stated – including that a lot of the funding gave the impression to be drawn “from recycling existing budgets”.

Labour claimed the federal government was “only promising to do something about it now there’s an election coming”.

Pointing to his celebration’s personal plan for supervised toothbrushing for children and hundreds of additional appointments, shadow well being secretary Wes Streeting stated: “After 14 years of Conservative neglect, patients are desperately queuing around the block to see a dentist, literally pulling their own teeth out, and tooth decay is the number one reason for 6-year-olds being admitted to hospital.

“The Conservatives are solely promising to do one thing about it now there’s an election coming.

“By adopting Labour’s proposals for recruitment and supervised toothbrushing, they are finally admitting that they are out of ideas of their own.”

Lib Dem well being spokesperson Daisy Cooper stated: “This plan comes too little too late for those left waiting in pain for dental care or the children admitted to hospital for tooth decay.

“With over 12 million ready for assist, this pledge to assist simply 1 million is a drop within the ocean and exhibits the Government is not severe.”