Just two weeks after the election, our new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer has begun to settle into his role. There are many problems facing the new PM, but one of the main concerns for a lot of people is the difficulty of getting a dentist. Dr. Zuber Bagasi, owner of Synergy Dental Group and head of Synergy’s Blackpool branch, looks into what Labour’s plans are and if they will work.
Labour’s dentistry rescue plan in their election manifesto includes promises to:
- Tackle the immediate crisis with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments
- Recruit new dentists to areas that need them most.
- Reform the dental contract, with a shift to focusing on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
- Introduce a supervised tooth-brushing scheme for 3 to 5-year-olds, targeting the areas of highest need.
Initially, Dr. Bagasi praised the plan to introduce a supervised toothbrushing scheme for 3 to 5 year olds, though noted that it was very similar to a point the Conservative party raised in their own dentistry rescue plan rolled out earlier in the year. As tooth decay is the leading cause of general anaesthetic hospital referral for children under 10, our government needs to intervene for the sake of our children’s teeth. But Dr. Bagasi noted that, “Just toothbrushing alone isn’t enough – these kids have to have access to dentists and they need to be seen regularly.”
Speaking on the plan to recruit new dentists, Dr. Bagasi comments that, “Within the Lanacshire and Greater Manchester areas, only a handful of dentists will likely be recruited. Of course more dentists will help, but this is a drop in the ocean compared to the level of need in the area.” Attempting to recruit new dentists is a vital step in preserving our dental care system, but there is no guarantee that newly recruited dentists will be willing to stay in a broken NHS system, which is why the point of contract reform is likely the most important one on the list.
Speaking on contract reform, Dr. Bagasi says, “The cost of running a practice keeps going up, but the dentistry budget hasn’t increased.” He called for changes to be made to the dental contract to allow dentists to be fairly compensated for taking on NHS work. “Under the current contract, dentists are paid a set rate for treatments like fillings, meaning they’re paid the same for 2 fillings or 6 and don’t get compensated for the extra time or materials. Once they meet their NHS patient targets, they don’t get more funding to take on more patients – this is why so many dentists have closed down, and others are having to go private just to keep their doors open. Labour are unclear what changes they plan to make to the dentistry contract, but paying dentists properly for NHS work, fixing targets, and changing the way NHS dentistry is managed will go a long way towards starting to repair the damage done to the dental service.”
Speaking overall on the state of dentistry, Dr. Bagasi says, “There’s a lot of issues facing dentistry right now and they won’t be solved overnight. Labour has a lot to do. “I’ve always campaigned for improving dental care. In the past, I’ve worked with Mark Logan MP and Yasmin Qureshi MP to represent local interests, and I plan to keep working with the local government to help get the hard working people of my local community access to dental care.
“Part of my ethos when setting up Synergy dental was to put people and planet over profits, which is why I’ve found ways to offer private dentistry at a similar price to the NHS banding system – so that people who are struggling to access a dentist through the NHS can still afford to see a dentist on a private basis.”