A single health related concern became one of the major issues during the recently concluded elections to the United Kingdom – Dentistry.
Perhaps for the first time in the National Health Service’s 75-year history dentistry is set to be a headline issue in a UK General Election.
Though the flashpoint was the difficulty in getting access to dental services, but it did bring to the foreground the whole issue the tottering UK’s National Health Scheme was clearly not able to meet the health demands. A common refrain was that it should be adequately funded so that it could provide health access services to all.
There was a demand to scrap the failed contracts which forced dentists out of the NHS and rebuild a service with prevention at its heart.
What was particularly shocking was cases of patients trying to pull out their own teeth and thereby injuring their mouth.
One of the major reasons was that patients were not able to get appointments with NHS dentists as there were few and far between.
According to reports in a recent survey it was found that nine out of ten practices are no longer taking on new NHS patients.
Another report said that according to Government’s own figures 12 million people are unable to get to NHS dental treatment.
A large percentage of children were no longer getting regular NHS check-ups.
Dentists found that the Sunak government’s new plan to encourage dentists to see new patients offered inadequate funds which would not be able to stop dentists from getting out of the workforce and thus dental patients will have no one to look after them.
Large number of children land up in hospital due to tooth decay.
While former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also promised to “restore NHS dentistry” very little was offered, critics felt.
The British Dental Association says that “deeds need to match words.”
Keir Starmer is now Prime Minister after the Labour Party won with a significant majority.
The Labour Party in its manifesto, pledged to enforce a new Dentistry Rescue Plan, fill the gap of appointments with an extra 700,000 urgent and emergency dental appointments a year. Flood dental deserts with new dentistry graduates, with golden hellos of £20,000 for those who spend at least three years working in under-served areas.
It also said there would be supervised toothbrushing for three- to five-year-olds, to prevent children forced to hospital to have their rotting teeth pulled out.
Reform of the dental contract, to rebuild NHS dentistry and make sure everyone who needs a dentist can get one.
Starmer promised 100,000 more dental appointments for children and incentivise graduate dentists to practise in the NHS.
There must be a complete change in dental services which has not been sustainable for many years now, some felt.
According to a survey nearly 96% dentists wanted politicians to include plans to support the health and wellbeing of the dental workforce.
Patients are expecting that with the huge majority now, Labour government will easily and expeditiously pass policies and laws.
However, questions are being raised as to how they’re going to do this. In what manner are they going to reform the contract?
They need to look at bringing back a fee per item service with no caps on how much NHS dentistry you do. Dentists working on the health service should have the same medical and legal cover provided by the state to those who work in NHS hospitals.
The current NHS dentistry needs to be reformed as it is clearly not working. The most common reason for hospital admissions for general anaesthetic for five- to 10-year-olds was dental decay. Government needs to be realistic of what public funds they are willing to commit to dental health and what can be achieved.
Prevention needs to be at the heart of a new contract with fair renumeration.
There was need to reform the 1984 Dentists Act.
Dentists however will like the new Labour government to deliver on its promises and be accountable. They would like a wider system of reform to trigger and sustain change. They would like focus on preventive care and access to dentists, targeted, evidence-based interventions to reduce oral health inequalities.
With health and dentistry becoming a focus during elections, the Green Party had promised to invest an extra 50 Billion pounds into the National Health Service. A Conservative candidate said there would be investment to encourage more NHS dentists to work in rural and coastal areas, another promised to increase the number of dental appointments by more than two million.
Dentistry interestingly came to dominate compared to other issues local issues like crime, streets, schools.
In a survey nearly 28% voters felt it as a top concern,
One of 20 adults in England felt the crisis in dentistry will directly impact on how they vote.
Dentistry thus became one of the top political and media agenda.
On 17 May 2024, Preet Kaur Gill, Labour’s Shadow Primary Care and Public Health Minister, at a Dentistry meet, presented Labour’s party’s plan to rescue and reform NHS dentistry – before the general election was called and Parliament was dissolved.
Preet Kaur Gill said that the ‘future of NHS dentistry will be on the ballot paper’ at the next election, and that access to a dentist is ‘just as integral as your access to a GP’.
She referenced having met patients who’ve had to wait three years to get seen, by which time half their teeth had rotted beyond repair.
Labour has committed to reforming the outdated dental contract to shift the focus to prevention, retain NHS dentists. The British Dental Association (BDA) said before elections that NHS dentistry is now at the forefront of voter concerns for the General Election. Voters are calling for a plan to save the service. In a survey four per cent of voters said the dental crisis will directly impact how they vote.
Seeing the kind of sweeping win by the Labour party one can clearly say that the Dentistry issue highlighted by them was believed by the common voters, bringing smile to the victorious Labour candidates.
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