Thursday 21 August 2008

A Kick In The Teeth

I was going to write about today's news concerning NHS dentistry, creditably the lead story on The World At One. But at least as notable is that this is not covered on any of the websites of the Times, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Independent or the BBC. Clearly, so far as the "opinion-forming" class is concerned, everyone can afford to go private, and does so as a matter of course. That's right. Isn't it?

3 comments:

  1. A bit of context.

    - The highest ever rate of access to NHS dentistry was 60% - it's now around 53%.

    - The number of NHS dentists has risen by 655 in the last year and new NHS dental practices are opening around the country, which suggests both that access will rise in future and that the 2006 dental contract hasn't led to a decline in the number of NHS dentists.

    - The Tories closed two dental schools in the 1990s, which has had a long-term impact on dentist numbers; there have been 170 more dental student places each year since 2005 and two new dental schools opened in 2007, which should increase the number of dentists over time.

    - Funding for NHS dentistry has risen by 11% for 2008/9 - well above the rate of inflation - and has been ring-fenced.

    - According to the WHO, English children (English, not British, because of devolution) have the best oral health in Europe.

    - Fifteen year olds in England have the best oral health since record began.

    - The maximum NHS dental charge has been cut by half: this has the biggest impact on those with the worst oral health who need the most expensive treatments.

    -The number of charges has been simplified: there are now three bands instead of nearly 400.

    - Nearly 50% of NHS patients are exempt from all dental charges, including all children, pregnant women and those on income support.

    I'm sure you'll bear all of these facts in mind. Obviously there is no intervention that can make an instant difference to NHS dental provision, so it's too early to make a confident assessment of the long-term impact of the 2006 dental contract.

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  2. "The highest ever rate of access to NHS dentistry was 60%"

    Measured how, exactly? Presumably just by how many people ever went to an NHS dentist, rather than by how many people had an NHS dentist to go to.

    Funny business yesterday, Sam. A comment from you (I presume) on another thread, and a comment from someone else (of course) agreeing with you even before I had put up your one. Baffling. In the end, I felt that I had to reject them both.

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  3. I didn't comment yesterday, David. Must have been a different Sam.

    On your question about how the figures were calculated: the same way today's were. I presumed that was the story you were commenting on.

    The latest figures for England show that 27 million people - 53.3%of the population - were seen by an NHS dentist in the two years following the introduction of the contract. That's how access is measured: number of people who saw a dentist in a two-year period. Since standard advice is that everyone should see a dentist for a routine check-up every six months, it's not a bad proxy for the number who have access, although obviously it omits people who do have access but choose not to take it up.

    The highest ever equivalent figure was 60% - I'm afraid I don't know when that was. The point, though, is that access to NHS dentistry has never, never, never been particularly impressive.

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