Letter

Chewing over the Bloomfield report

Dear healthmatters — NHS dentistry is in crisis. Fifty one per cent of dentists are seeking to increase their private practice, according to the British Dental Association (BDA). In some areas dentists are de-registering NHS patients, and as many as 250,000 people may have been affected so far. The government’s response has been the Bloomfield report into dental funding.

Bloomfield’s three suggested cures are: rationing core services, either by limiting the range of treatments or the people to whom they are accessible; means testing access to free treatment; and developing an internal market for dentistry.

None of these options will help patients. Rationing, means testing and higher fees will deny access to dental services to a considerable number of people. The internal market will limit patient choice to those dentists with contracts from FHSAs.

What is needed is a well-funded community dental service. Developing innovative cross-professional practices with GPs and other health workers would benefit patients and allow core costs to be reduced. Additional salaried dentists are also needed - there are only 71 in England and 6 in Wales.

Most importantly, a needs-based funding formula incorporating payments for deprivation and special needs is required.