NHS leaders have acknowledged a recovery plan for dentistry in England, launched by the previous Conservative government a year ago, has comprehensively failed.
One aspect of the plan – ‘Golden Hello’ payments to encourage dentists to start working in underserved areas – has seen only 39 dentists appointed out of a target of 240.
Another idea – the introduction of mobile dental vans – has completely failed to deliver any extra capacity.
At a Parliamentary committee NHS leaders acknowledged the fundamental problem was the contract that dentists are offered to carry out NHS work – and the best thing was to rip it up and start again.
The Dental Recovery Plan was first outlined by Conservative health ministers in February 2024, to try and address a crisis in NHS dentistry in England.
Many patients struggle to access NHS dental care, with some towns now known as ‘Dental Deserts’, in which there are simply no NHS dentists at all.
UK-wide research carried out by BBC News in 2022 found that 9 out of 10 NHS dentists were no longer accepting new adult patients.
8 out of 10 were no longer taking on children as patients, even though they are meant to be entitled to free care.
But senior bosses from NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have now told a committee of MPs that the recovery plan outlined a year ago has failed.
Professor Sir Chris Whitty, currently Interim Permanent Secretary at the DHSC – the most senior civil servant – was asked whether the plan was on track to deliver the extra 1.5 million treatments for patients that had been promised by the last Government.
“The very short answer is no.
“Within the Dental recovery Plan, there were four components, of which I think one didn’t start at all, which was on dental vans.
“There were three (additional) elements that were aiming to address recognised problems…but the solutions were unsuccessful.”
Sir Chris said that a “patient premium” to incentivise dentists to take on new patients had failed to result in any significant increases in patient numbers.
A “Golden Hello” payment scheme has so far only seen an additional 39 dentists contracted to work in underserved areas, against a target of 240.
And a reform of the amount of money dentists are paid for individual treatments had failed to bridge the gap with what they earn for private work.
Amanda Pritchard, head of NHS England, told the Public Accounts Committee that lessons would be learned from the failure of the plan.
“The thing which we are focusing on next, which is a very clear priority for the Government, is the delivery of the additional 700,000 urgent dental appointments.
“We are expecting commissioners to plan for that.
“And crucially we are leaning the lessons of what hasn’t worked.”
There was an acknowledgement from health leaders and MPs that the fundamental problem with dentistry is the contract for NHS work, which many dentists say actually costs them money.
Amanda Pritchard of NHS England agreed with one MP who suggested the solution was to rip up the existing contract and start again.
“The right answer I think is to consider a much more radical reshaping of dentistry in this country because it feels to us that tweaking around the edges…you can see it has made some difference, but not enough.”