Dental Technology Reaches the Grand Committee Room in Parliament!
By Richard Daniels
The UK is on the verge of a new political era. Without the need for a leadership contest, we will see the arrival of a new Prime Minister, and in all probability a new Secretary of State for Health in the summer re-shuffle.
This gives dentistry an interesting opportunity in the run-up to the next general election. The current government will be in the luxurious position of being able to reshape policy, citing the need to build upon the previous changes of the last cabinet. At the same time the opposition parties will be able to make new policy based on the experiences (both good and bad) of the major reform that has taken place over the last 10 years.
It is for these reasons that dental technology, and dentistry in general, must take an active role in the political arena, so that we don’t only have an influence on the future of dentistry in the UK, but we actually dictate the shape of UK dentistry for the benefit of all dental professionals and most importantly the patient.
As has so often been the case with the dental industry, the Government has enjoyed being able to watch divisions and re-alignments amongst the professional organisations within dentistry. With the dental organisations unable to come to an agreement or even consider their fellow professionals, the Government has been free to set unrealistic targets and restrict development without significant opposition.
A United Front
In 2006 an informal group was established called the Dental Summit, whose membership includes all of the Chief Executives / Presidents of the main dental organisations. Whilst it has had no formal remit or function, its primary task in terms of the Dental Laboratories Association was to formulate a collective opinion and action group – opposing the new dental contract and its impact on dental laboratories and dental technicians, and providing an opportunity for all of the dental groups to keep talking. That is why the importance of this group should not be underestimated by fellow dental technology associations, DCP groups or the main political parties. As the saying goes, ‘there is strength in numbers.’
On 26th April 2007, eleven out of the twelve major dental representative bodies attended a ‘think tank’ meeting with Health 2020, an online organisation which looks at influencing health policy in the UK. Since May last year the DLA has
been pioneering a highly political campaign against the new dental contract with all the major political parties. I think that it is a fairly accurate assumption that dental technology is now more widely understood by politicians than ever before. The next significant challenge for the DLA is to encourage the politicians to use their new-found understanding of the larger dental community to change opposition policy and current government legislation.
Since May last year the DLA has been pioneering a highly political campaign against the new dental contract with all the major political parties. I think that it is a fairly accurate assumption that dental technology is now more widely understood by politicians than ever before. The next significant challenge for the DLA is to encourage the politicians to use their new-found understanding of the larger dental community to change opposition policy and current government egislation.
Discussing Alternatives
It was for this reason that the meeting on 26th April in the Grand Committee room presented such an important opportunity to get the message across to the front bench politicians. Chaired by Andrew Murrison, Shadow Minister for Health, the meeting had one specific agenda item – ‘what realistic alternatives are there to the current dental contract.’
The major contributors to the meeting were the representatives from DPA, BDTA, Denplan, BADN, DTA and of course the DLA! Discussions initially concentrated on access to dentists and the lack of focus on quality in the new dental contract; however, it didn’t take long for the meeting to focus on the impact the new contract has had on complex treatments. It was strangely encouraging that all of the groups including the DPA agreed with the DLA’s view that dentists are being placed in a perverse position where the less work they do, the more they commercially gain. Another hopeful sign is that the national press has yet again picked up on the significant impact of the new dental contract on NHS patients.
David Smith, DLA Council member, spelled out the need for a fundamental review of the new contract rather than tinkering with the detail. In line with DLA policy, he encouraged the meeting to consider a core service on the NHS, which patients can then ‘top up’ with other treatments if and when they want, in a similar vein to the Ophthalmic industry. This position was supported across the meeting and received positive support from the Conservative MP responsible for policy on dentistry.
The DTA representative Tony Griffin also made a valuable contribution to the meeting, reminding the group about the
importance of supporting the dental technology profession, as we are in grave danger of losing the skills that have been
the foundation of NHS dentistry over the last 40+ years.
From my admittedly biased viewpoint, I left the meeting feeling very positive at the constructive nature of the
meeting, especially regarding the input from the DLA and DTA representatives. Dental technology was firmly at the top
of the agenda and whilst only time will tell, it will be a brave (or foolish!) political party that ignores an increasingly important topic for the general public.
What Next?
It is intended that the organisations at the meeting will now re-group and evaluate the impact of the discussions. This will be followed up with policy promotion by the DLA to all the main political front benchers and the Health Select Committee. In terms of the Dental Summit, my hope is that this group will become a more formal lobbying group on behalf of dentistry, and will continue to create opportunities like the one held on 26th April. As I said at the beginning of this article, we are in a new political era and I believe that provides us with an opportunity to change the nightmares of the past few years.
