A Government plan to fix NHS dentistry actually made it worse and resulted in fewer new patients being seen, a damning report by MPs reveals.
Efforts to enhance accessibility have been labeled as a ‘total failure’ due to services being supported by a contract that is deemed inadequate, according to the Public Accounts Committee.
There is only enough funding for around half the population to see an NHS dentist once every 24 months – ‘at best’.
Furthermore, the report highlights that dentists are not adequately compensated for providing NHS services, resulting in many now only treating patients who are able to pay for private care.
This has resulted in an ‘avalanche of harrowing stories’, with poorer patients forced to pull out their own teeth with pliers.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the committee, expressed his outrage at the fact that individuals in the UK are being forced to turn to self-administered dental treatments in this day and age, deeming the situation as ‘completely unacceptable’.
The blueprint to bolster NHS dentistry was unveiled in February 2024, with a pledge that it would fund more than 1.5 million additional NHS treatments or 2.5 million appointments.
This included a new patient premium (NPP), with practices receiving credits for each eligible new patient they saw, a ‘golden hello’ recruitment scheme which introduced £20,000 incentive payments for dentists, and mobile dental vans targeting underserved communities.
A Government plan to fix NHS dentistry actually made it worse and resulted in fewer new patients being seen, a damning report by MPs reveals
But the PAC found the NPP – which has cost at least £88 million since it was introduced last March – has resulted in 3 per cent fewer new patients seeing an NHS dentist.
The ‘golden hello’ scheme had appointed fewer than 20 per cent of the expected 240 dentists by February 2025 and the mobile dental vans have been dropped.
Sir Geoffrey said: ‘This country is now years deep in an avalanche of harrowing stories of the impact of dentistry’s system failure.
‘It is utterly disgraceful that, in the 21st century, some Britons have been forced to remove their own teeth.
‘Last year’s Dental Recovery Plan was supposed to address these problems, something our report has found it has signally failed to do.
‘Almost unbelievably, the Government’s initiatives appear to have actually resulted in worsening the picture, with fewer new patients seen since the plan’s introduction.’
Just 40 per cent of adults saw an NHS dentist in the two years to March 2024 compared with 49 per cent in the two years before the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the report, there were 34,520 dentists registered to provide services in England in April 2023 but only 24,193 delivered any NHS care in 2023/24.
The PAC warned that without proper remuneration, more dentists would move exclusively to the private sector.
Sir Geoffrey added: ‘NHS dentistry is broken. The Government could hardly fail to agree on this point, and indeed I am glad that it is not in denial that the time for tinkering at the edges is over.
‘It is time for big decisions.’
He said the abolition of NHS England, which was announced by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last month, gives the Government an opportunity to ‘completely reconfigure’ how the health service is run.
‘A new contract should be negotiated with dentists so that all in this country will have proper access to an NHS dentist for the treatment they need,’ he added.
The PAC report comes after the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey this week revealed satisfaction with NHS dentistry has ‘continued to collapse’.
Levels are at a record low of 20 per cent, compared with 60 per cent in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, while dissatisfaction levels of 55 per cent are at a record high and the worst of any NHS service.
Shiv Pabary, chair of the British Dental Association’s general dental practice committee, said: ‘MPs have arrived at an inescapable conclusion, that tweaks at the margins have not and will not save NHS dentistry.’
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Public Accounts Committee
Thea Stein, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, a health think tank, said: ‘If governments are not willing to put in the billions required to bring back dentistry for everyone, we also need a serious conversation about who should be first in line.
‘That might mean a service which focuses most on bringing back services for those who cannot afford private dentistry, and vulnerable groups like children.’
Louise Ansari, chief executive at Healthwatch England, said: ‘After nearly 20 years of an NHS dental system that has resulted in tragic cases of DIY dentistry, people living in pain, and major increases in the number of children in deprived areas sent to hospital for removal of decayed teeth, any new system must be designed in partnership with people and organisations that represent them.’
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the Labour Government ‘inherited a broken NHS dental sector’ and was fixing it through its Plan for Change.
An NHS England spokesperson said: ‘More needs to be done to help people access a dentist – that is why the NHS is working with the Government to reform the dental contract and provide 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments to improve access for those most in need each year.’
