England falls behind on dental spending

RECENTLY I was browsing through some NHS pages on the internet, when I suddenly came across a critical page by the British Dental Association (BDA).

It had two headlines: the first being ‘What ministers pay for your care’; the second ‘Setting the record straight on NHS dental charges’.

Under the first headline it quoted government spend per head of population, across the UK, on NHS General Dental Services, 2016/17 (sourced from from governments accounts).

At that time the spend per head for each country was: Northern Ireland £57.47, Scotland £52.73, Wales

£44.01 and England £36!

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Why such disparity between England and (especially) Northern Ireland?

Why isn’t the spend per head the same for all four countries? No wonder complaints are constantly made about the NHS in England being grossly underfunded!

I don’t know why the BDS doesn’t have more up-to-date information, especially as the page is dated 2021.

Under the second headline the BDS states the following: “Patient charges in England rose by 5% on 14th December 2020. The revenue raised by this increase doesn’t go to dentists. It will do nothing to help the practices struggling or the millions of patients unable to secure an appointment.

“Ministers are simply making our patients pay more, so they can pay less. During a global pandemic – when access to services remains so limited – Ministers have decided to give patients more reason not to attend with another inflationbusting hike. These hikes are never a substitute for sustained government investment.”

Gil Osman Bristol