LONDON, UK: In last month’s UK general election, the Conservative Party recorded a resounding victory, securing 365 seats to achieve an outright majority in Parliament. The British Dental Association (BDA) chair Dr Mick Armstrong has wasted no time in contacting the government, penning an open letter to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock on the topic of funding for NHS dentistry.
As outlined in the letter, the Conservative Party’s victory resulted in it taking control of many of the areas of England with acute oral health access problems. “Breaching the so-called ‘Red Wall’ in the Midlands and North of England has seen the Conservative Party make headway in areas with acute access problems, including areas like Dewsbury in West Yorkshire where residents routinely receive support from the charity Dentaid: this charity normally operates in the developing world,” the BDA said in an associated press release.
In the lead-up to the election, the BDA had thrown its support behind the Labour Party’s proposal that, if elected, it would abolish charges for all dental check-ups in England. Though the plan was estimated to be likely to incur an annual cost of £450 million, it was designed to be “the first step towards making all dentistry services free of charge”, according to Jeremy Corbyn, then leader of the Labour Party.
Last year, Dental Tribune UK & Ireland reported that an estimated one million new dental patients in England are unable to secure an NHS dentist and that government spending on NHS dentistry per capita has fallen by nearly one-third since 2010. As Armstrong outlines in his letter, dentistry is the only part of the NHS to be operating on a lower budget than it was a decade ago.
“From Cornwall to Cumbria, from Devon to Dewsbury this government, and this parliament, have a responsibility to deliver for these patients and provide the reform and investment the service urgently needs,” Armstrong commented. “Dentistry cannot be the missing piece in the government’s NHS plan."
Tags:
LONDON, UK: Researchers at University College London have highlighted the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect of having widened inequalities in oral health in the ...
EDINBURGH, UK: The havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic across the world has meant that patient attendance levels at dental practices have dropped quite ...
LONDON, UK: Despite being largely preventable, poor dental health continues to be a major public health issue in England. This is evident in a recent report...
LONDON, UK: Currently, six million people in the UK are supplied with fluoridated water, and around 300,000 are supplied with water which contains naturally...
MANCHESTER, UK: According to figures from the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, four in five children under 2 years of ...
EDINBURGH, UK: The gap in dental caries rates between children living in the least and most deprived areas of Scotland is growing, according to the National...
LONDON, UK: The UK government is currently holding a consultation on appropriate indemnity cover for health care professionals who are not covered by any ...
LONDON, UK: Migration patterns in the UK have changed tremendously in the last two decades owing to ease of global travel, asylum seekers from conflict ...
London, UK: The British Dental Association (BDA) has said that it will work with the new Conservative cabinet and members of parliament towards a better ...
LONDON, UK: A green paper published by the UK government has outlined an ambitious plan for the UK to be “smoke-free” by 2030. The goal is part of a ...
Live webinar
Fri. 19 July 2024
1:00 am UTC (London)
Live webinar
Tue. 6 August 2024
11:00 pm UTC (London)
Live webinar
Wed. 14 August 2024
12:00 am UTC (London)
Live webinar
Wed. 14 August 2024
5:30 pm UTC (London)
Live webinar
Wed. 21 August 2024
2:00 pm UTC (London)
Dr. Jim Lai DMD, MSc(Perio), EdD, FRCD(C)
Live webinar
Thu. 29 August 2024
1:00 am UTC (London)
Live webinar
Mon. 2 September 2024
10:00 am UTC (London)
To post a reply please login or register