Saturday Live!
DLA’s NHS dentistry campaign gets mass publicity
The Dental Laboratories Association took to the national airwaves on Saturday 15th September – with major news reports on BBC One’s BBC Breakfast television programme, Five Live Breakfast and Richard Daniels' second appearance on the Radio 4 Today programme.
DLA Chief Executive Richard Daniels highlighted the disastrous results of the new contract, with a drop in Band 3 complex treatments of 57% and an increase in single-tooth dentures of 78% compared with the old fee per item system.
He explained how patients are frequently being short-changed as regards the dental treatment they are receiving through the NHS. “That means that patients aren’t receiving dentures, crowns, veneers – all the things they would have expected under the old contract. So that means that once the three years of the pilot study are over, the dental health of the nation is going to be drastically affected.”
He also told the BBC: “The current contract is forcing dentists to make prescription decisions based on financial resources rather than clinical need. My concern is that, with such a dramatic reduction in complex treatments, some of the most vulnerable people in society are suffering. The Department of Health must act now to stop the decay of our dental service."
The Chief Dental Officer Barry Cockroft was also interviewed. He said that the new contract was designed to be appropriate to the new oral health of the country, rather than 1948 when the previous system was introduced. “We’ve now got the best levels of oral health in Europe in our children, and much, much improved levels of oral health, so a reduction in complex treatment and intervention is completely appropriate,” he stated.
However, the numerous emails, texts and calls received by the BBC programmes told a different story, providing more evidence that NHS patients and dentists alike are very unhappy with the lack of support and poor treatment that many are receiving.
Peter Ward of the British Dental Association said, “The levels that have been imposed on dentists, and the financial penalties if they don’t deliver on them, are enormous. So dentists have to work for patients first and foremost, but this contract has put their own survival at risk as a result of carrying out that very professional activity that they’ve done with patients for many years.”
Dr Anthony Halperin, the chairman of the Patients Association and himself a private dentist, said: “It does seem that there is a skewing of the system, in that dentists are now avoiding complex treatments because they have to pay for these complex treatments.” He said that his discussions with capitation schemes such as Denplan found that their patients did not show a reduction in complex treatments – backing up the DLA’s suggestion that NHS patients are unfairly penalised by the contract.
In addition, he pointed out that the new system to be introduced in Northern Ireland will significantly not be based on Units of Dental Activity.
Throughout the day this important story was one of the top items on BBC News 24 and other news bulletins, ensuring very high publicity for the DLA’s campaign. The video footage of the dental technicians at work on ceramics, prosthetics and CAD/CAM should also have proved invaluable in illustrating the essential work performed by Britain’s dental laboratories.
If you missed any of the news items, you can catch up here!
BBC Breakfast
You can watch the main BBC Breakfast report via the link on the BBC News page:
BBC Five Live Breakfast report and interview with Richard Daniels (requires MP3 player/iTunes/Windows Media Player). Right-click to download the file to your PC (Mac: Ctrl-Click):
BBC Radio 4 Today Programme interview with Richard Daniels and Barry Cockroft (requires free Real Player):
All video & audio is © BBC 2007
