County’s lost NHS dental practices since 2020

Seven dental practices in West Sussex have given up their NHS contracts since April 2020, councillors have been told.

The news was shared during a meeting of West Sussex County Council’s health and adult social care scrutiny committee on Friday, January 21.

Mark Ridgeway, senior commissioning manager (dental) for NHS England, told the meeting that all but two of the contracts were given up for financial reasons.

Mr Ridgeway explained that funding offered by the NHS was based on information logged in 2004/2005.

While the amounts received by each practice had increased since then, in line with national recommendations, some still received more money than others.

He added: “It is often the case that it is those that are earning lower amounts [which] have terminated their contracts for financial reasons. It isn’t financially viable for them to run an NHS business with the increasing costs. But unfortunately we are not able to increase contract payments without an associated increase in activity.”

Mr Ridgeway assured the meeting that the money associated with each contract was returned to NHS England and re-invested back into dentistry – initially being offered through temporary contracts to any practice able to offer support.

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