Earlier this month, just days after the Government finally asked Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to fulfil their manifesto pledge to implement an additional 700,000 NHS dental appointments, I spoke at a meeting to over 70 MPs and ICB leads. I shared my first-hand experience of delivering urgent dental care in Yorkshire through flexible commissioning trials.
We organised this event on behalf of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Dentistry and Oral Health, to showcase the successful models already making a difference - and to help other ICBs learn lessons from the challenges we encountered and overcame.
No need to reinvent the wheel
Three ICBs presented on how they made it work, and the key theme was the need for sessional payments to be able to flexibly commission additional urgent care capacity.
They all stressed the need for collaborative working between the ICB and local dental providers, as we try to improve access for some of our most vulnerable patients within the constraints of the existing failed contract.
Having been delivering such urgent care sessions myself, in my presentation I stressed the freedom it gave us as clinicians to finally focus on doing what is best for our patients, free from the shackles of the Units of Dental Activity (UDA).
I stressed there was no need for commissioners across the country to reinvent the wheel, when the very effective approach we have taken in Yorkshire could simply be replicated nationwide.
Dental access: An uphill battle
I was also very clear: 700,000 additional appointments do not touch the sides. The government’s own estimates suggest 2.2 million people in England currently have an urgent care need. Extra activity is just a sticking plaster – what we really need is improvement in access to routine dentistry, and that means reforming the NHS dental contract now.
MPs attending spoke up for their patients, and the profession, which I was pleased to hear. Adam Dance, the MP for Yeovil, did not hold back, he questioned whether ICBs could deliver these extra appointments without the promised new funding. ICBs have now been told to recycle clawback, and we all know this is not the solution. He rightly pointed out that without real investment, improving NHS dental access will be an uphill battle.
A dental emergency
Dr Peter Prinsley, MP for Bury St Edmunds and an ENT surgeon, painted a stark picture of the crisis. He said he now regularly treats children with severe neck abscesses requiring emergency drainage - cases that were almost unheard of just a decade ago.
Stressing how serious the situation is, he stated, “the dental emergency is a political emergency”, and emphasised the need to “get on and reform the dental contract.
Dr Simon Opher MP chairs the APPG for Health, who worked with us to organise this event, and continues to practise as a GP. He reflected on the huge increase in the number of patients visiting him with severe dental pain.
He and Yasmin Qureshi MP, who co-chaired the panel, stressed that while these additional appointments were not on their own enough to tackle the access challenges faced by millions, they were welcome as a first step on a very long road ahead.
That sentiment was echoed throughout the event. Nearly every expert agreed: the current NHS dental contract is broken, and a move away from UDAs is urgently needed. I could not agree more.
Want to dive deeper?
Read the full summary of the event or watch the event recording.
