Exclusive:
NHS fees for everything from check-ups to fillings will go up again, rising by 2.3% from next month, meaning they have now increased by almost half in a decade
The Mirror has launched a petition demanding the hike in NHS dental charges be scrapped.
The Government announced this week fees for everything from check-ups to fillings will go up again, rising by 2.3% from next month. There are fears cash-strapped families will go without vital check-ups which will soon cost £27.40, up from £26.80, and store up more serious oral health problems.
NHS dental charges have now gone up by almost half in the last decade, well above inflation, but the British Dental Association (BDA) insists this latest rise will not mean more money for patient care.
Patients are being asked to pay an ever greater share of the overall NHS dentistry budget for England which has remained at around £3 billion for 15 years. This has meant a £1 billion real terms cut over this period due to inflation.
Our online petition, launched as part of the Mirror ’s Dentists for All campaign, states: “We all know that NHS dentistry is broken, with millions of people still struggling to get the dental care they need – and we need a plan to fix it. Instead of hiking NHS fees, it’s time for the Government to come up with a proper plan to fund NHS dentistry for all.”
Children, pregnant women, most veterans and people who receive certain benefits can get free NHS dental care. But everyone else must pay based on the type of treatment they need.
People who need basic care such as check-ups or X-rays will pay £27.40, up from £26.80. Band 2 care, which includes fillings, tooth extraction or root canal treatment, will cost £75.30, up from £73.50. And people who need dentures, bridges, crowns or braces will need to pay £326.70, up from £319.10.
BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: “These hikes make patients on modest incomes think twice about seeking care. It’s a toxic approach you won’t find in any other corner of our NHS, and it’s a political choice.
“We’re proud to stand with the Mirror and 38 Degrees to say no to the Treasury, and to demand the sustainable funding this service desperately needs.”The Mirror has been campaigning to fix the broken dentistry system, which has left people unable to get an NHS dentist forced to pull out their own teeth or go into debt to go private.
We have partnered with the BDA and campaigning platform 38 Degrees to launch the petition calling for the hike to be abandoned and urging ministers to come up with an alternative funding plan for NHS dentistry.
It comes after the Government fulfilled manifesto commitments and announced supervised toothbrushing programmes at schools. It has also instructed the NHS to provide 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments from next month for people living in pain.
However the BDA says these will go only a small way to tackling unmet dental need as 19 out of 20 dental surgeries are not taking on new adult NHS patients.
Health Minister Stephen Kinnock unveiled the price hike on Tuesday and yesterday(Friday) addressed dental industry figures at the BDIA Dental Showcase at the ExCel in London. Mr Kinnock said: “We promised we would end the misery faced by hundreds of thousands of people unable to get urgent dental care. That must be our highest priority. Stories of DIY dentistry are totally unacceptable. Nobody would be living with pain and infection.”
Labour have vowed to tackle the “flawed” NHS dental contract but the BDA says it has made “no progress” since entering government last year. The contract pays dentists the same amount for three fillings as 20.
Lack of dentists means practices are unable to hit their planned number of units of dental activity (UDAs). Under the contract they are then fined tens of thousands of pounds. This has meant almost a third of the NHS dental budget is having to be returned as “underspends” in some areas – despite their being huge unmet need for dental care. These fines then make it harder for practices to fund recruitment of more dentists and encourages practices to move into more lucrative private work.
It is understood negotiations on NHS contract reform cannot begin in earnest until the Treasury agrees a budgetary framework.
The Mirror has told numerous tales of mystery caused by the NHS dentistry crisis.
Former miner David Creamer was left living on soup and rice pudding because he could not find an NHS dentist. The 63 year old was left agony for several months after losing four crowns and did not have the £5,400 he was quoted to get them fixed privately.
A three year old boy was also left suffering from a dental condition which caused crumbling, black teeth because of waits of at least a year to have them removed. Sid Hall, from Scarborough, North Yorks, has hypomineralisation – known as chalky teeth – and needed four removed. His mum Claire told the Mirror he is often in pain, struggles to eat and his language development has been stunted.
In another case plumber Grant Lakey had to yank out four of his teeth with string because he was unable to access an NHS dentist. Grant lost some of his upper teeth in an accident at work and his lower teeth started to come loose. He tried all six dentists near his home in Bromley, South East London, but he said none was accepting NHS patients.
Grant told the Mirror: “It’s terrible when your teeth are all moving around because you are scared to bite anything. It feels like you have a mouth full of marbles. It sounds a bit mediaeval but I ended up having to tie string around them and kind of garrotted it out.”
Click HERE to see if you are eligible for free NHS dental care.
