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BDA slams contract
14th Mar 2006
The new contract is an absolute mess. The contract needs to be looked at in a much more serious manner than it has been because there are serious flaws The controversial new dental contract is ‘an absolute mess’ that will deal a devastating blow to personal relationships between dentists and patients,’ an expert has warned. Lester Ellman, chairman of the British Dental Association's (BDA) General Dental Practice Committee, attacked plans to shake-up dental charges as he gave evidence to an influential group of MPs. He also supported calls for every person to undergo an oral health M.O.T. in a bid to allow dentists to get to grips with tooth and gum disease, especially in parts of the country suffering poor oral hygiene. Mr Ellman, an NHS dentist, made his hard-hitting comments when he appeared before the Commons' powerful Health Select Committee. Under the present system, dentists charge a fee for every filling, extraction and item of treatment, with no incentive to carry out preventive care. But the new contract, set to come into force in April, will introduce three fee bands of £15, £42.50 and £183, in a bid to discourage dentists from a ‘drill and fill’ mentality. Fears have been raised that thousands of dentists will desert the NHS and open private practices to safeguard against a plunge in income and to offer patients better standards of treatment. Mr Ellman said: ‘The new contract is an absolute mess. The contract needs to be looked at in a much more serious manner than it has been because there are serious flaws. ‘If members of the BDA said 'No, we're not happy with the contract' and refused to sign up to it then the Government would have to look at it again. This should have been done months ago.’ Mr Ellman told the cross-party committee that there was a danger the new contract would erode job satisfaction among dentists. He said: ‘Most dentists go private not for the income but to produce the quality of dentistry that they think their patients deserve.’ The new system does not provide them with that. It does not look to the generation of quality dental work, which is the outcome that we all want. ‘Job satisfaction is something that dentists don't get if they are pushed really hard. If they are seeing 40 patients a day, they can't form a good working relationship and spend time with their patients at all.’ He also urged people to have an oral health MOT. He said: ‘This has been used by some private practices and it would be beneficial because we could measure the health gain and quantify the effect of what we are doing. ‘It would also encourage patients to go along with preventative treatment.’ The Health Select Committee, which is made up of MPs from the three main political parties, is probing the new system of NHS charges.
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