Letter from the Chief Executive, British
Dental Association, to the Clerk of the Committee (D7A)
ONE-DAY
INQUIRY INTO
ACCESS TO
NHS DENTISTRY-15 FEBRUARY
2001
Thank you for the Inquiry into the Government`s
strategy to improving access to NHS Dentistry, which your Committee
conducted on 15 February. We felt that the Committee had, in a
limited time, carefully and thoughtfully explored some of the
issues that the profession, the NHS, and Government, are currently
grappling with. Please pass on our thanks to David Hinchcliffe,
MP, for the courteous and detailed way in which he chaired the
Inquiry.
We very much hope that the Health Committee
will, as the Chairman hinted, take the opportunity to return for
a longer look at issues in dentistry and oral health for the NHS.
You will have gathered from our evidence, both written and oral,
the depth of concern of BDA members about the current situation.
As the Chairman of the BDA Executive Board, Dr John Renshaw, noted
at the end of his evidence, dentists have not withdrawn from the
NHS over the past decade for ideological reasons, but because
of the great difficulties they have faced in practising dentistry
in the NHS to the standards that they, and their patients, demand
and deserve.
The very long-standing problems of access to
GDS, and pressures on the CDS, which the Government has now begun
to address, require a great deal of further attention. It is essential
that the Government and the profession work together to look at
how NHS dental care should be delivered to meet today's and tomorrow's
needs—an essential step for a modernised NHS. We were thus
very pleased that the Minister, Lord Hunt, gave the Health Select
Committee a commitment to work with the profession.
The Chairman invited the BDA to submit additional
comments. In particular, he invited observations on the recommendations
of the 1993 Health Select Committee Report. Re-reading this report,
it is alarming how much could have been written now. To quote
from the 1993 Conclusion & Recommendations.
"We conclude that the principal apparent
constraints on the dental services in the coming years are the
limits on the ability of dentists to deliver a greater quantity
of treatment, the limit on the government's and the taxpayers',
willingness to fund more treatment and the willingness and ability
of patients to register with, and attend, a dentist. We believe
that a rational approach to planning the delivery of oral health
to patients of the NHS will require that the meeting of need and
the determination of priorities shape, rather than follow from,
the operation of the remuneration system."(4)
We very much hope that the Minister's encouraging
remarks, and our own commitment to work with Government to look
at these problems, will now allow us to move beyond the current
situation, that was deemed unacceptable as long ago as 1993. We
believe that the BDA and the Government share the same aim of
creating a modernised NHS dental provision that delivers the highest
possible care for all.
We also hope that the Report of your Inquiry
will support us in working to improve the current position. I
hope that you feel that you can call on the BDA to help with any
issues in preparing your Report. We would, of course, be happy
to help in any way we can in the future deliberations of the Committee.
23 February 2001
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