Tom Thayer and BDA Chair Eddie Crouch are joined by cross party MPs and representatives from the Women’s Institute. Photo by Anna Gordon.
When I dropped an email to the BDA last spring, I had no expectation that 9 months later my message would bring me to Downing Street. That the result would be a petition signed by over a quarter of a million people, questions raised in Parliament and the press, and new allies coming on side.
The fact it has reflects the depth of the crisis we continue to face.
I used to run an NHS practice, so I know what it’s like working to a failed contract. As a hospital dentist working post COVID, I’ve seen what it means from another perspective: in the growing number of reports from trainees of patients with life-threatening dental infections.
I felt compelled to raise these cases with the BDA, and that email kick started this campaign. Turns out what I picked up wasn’t an aberration, but a grim pattern repeated in hospitals nationwide.
Since then, it has been quite a journey. But it’s one that will have an impact on every colleague working in dentistry.
Making an impact
Minutes before we were due to enter Downing Street, we got word that Health Secretary Wes Streeting had told MPs the service was at "death’s door".
None of us who had gathered to hand over the petition were surprised or shocked. The writing has been on the wall for an age, and it is only governments that have been unable to read it.
Streeting spoke in response to questioning from MPs on our delivery, and on the lack of progress evident from Government on honouring pledges made in the last election.
Urgent care. Prevention. Contract reform. Making big promises won’t save this service. Action will.
Government must move at real pace to honour these pledges.
At our lowest ebb
This petition began addressed to the last occupant of Number 10. An election has come and gone, as has Mr Sunak, but there is no change in the crisis facing dentistry.
This service is in a more fragile state than ever. It’s precisely why need real urgency from Government - yet the Budget has heaped new costs on already struggling practices whilst providing no support.
As we walked in the cold up Downing Street, colleagues still had no idea when pay awards for 2024/25 would land, but we now know dentists in England have been handed a pay cut.
If the service is at death’s door, these changes will not resuscitate the patient.
Where next?
Do petitions change Government policy? Well no. Not alone.
It’s about applying pressure. Handing in this petition is not the end of this campaign.
We have built alliances and shown the depth of feeling not just in this profession, but among the millions we treat.
The work with our partners at 38 Degrees, the Women’s Institute, the Daily Mirror, and an ever growing number of MPs doesn’t end here.
"For every signature on this petition there are dozens unable to access care."
Because for every signature on this petition there are dozens unable to access care.
Every day that passes without reform sees demoralised colleagues paring down their NHS work or simply moving on.
The Government’s own data shows that NHS dentistry has all but ceased to exist for millions.
Polls keep showing that fixing this service is a top priority for the public. The think tank Policy Exchange says access to dentistry should be on a par with access to a GP or even a primary school place.
If that sounds extreme, it’s only because of the negligence of past governments.
It’s survival now requires the powers that be to stop talking and start acting.
This service can be saved, but only if this new Government is willing to show political will, commit the time and the necessary resources and engage with the profession in good faith.
So, the timing is now critical: there is only a very short window because the clock is ticking on this service.
And it won’t survive if Government fails to make good on its promises.
"Failure to act would amount to the effective abolition of NHS dentistry: death by can kicking."
Failure to act would amount to the effective abolition of NHS dentistry: death by can kicking.
And the PM and his Ministers would need to own the consequences.
Tom Thayer is a BDA member, hospital consultant and founder of the Save NHS dentistry petition