Dental student Amirali Ziaebrahimi explains why the government’s proposed healthcare changes risk deepening the crisis in dentistry.
The government’s recently announced NHS 10-Year Health Plan includes ambitious goals for dentistry: expanding neighbourhood health services, extending opening hours to 12-hour days, six days a week, and proposing mandatory NHS service commitments for newly qualified dentists.
At first glance, such measures seem designed to fix the chronic access crisis plaguing NHS dental services. Yet, without urgent reform of the underlying dental contract, this plan risks becoming a recipe for disaster.
The contract at the heart of the crisis
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