Chancellor Rachel Reeves ordered a market study into private dentistry this week amidst concerns of ‘hidden costs’, reports suggest.
The minister – who is set to announce her budget next week – has written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), urging it to investigate the costs and practices of private dentistry.
In a statement, Reeves said ‘hidden costs, lack of transparency and overtreatment’ has impacted families in need of dental treatment. As a result, she wants to see ‘urgent action’ to help reduce prices, the Mirror said.
BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: ‘This call for an investigation is utterly perverse.
‘The chancellor is singling out private dentists for doing what any business does: covering their costs, some of which are of the chancellor’s own making.
‘At the same time, she’s very happy to starve NHS services of vital funding.
‘We’d remind her that profits from private care are all that are keeping NHS dentistry afloat.’
Nigel Jones, strategy director at Practice Plan, said: ‘This feels like a desperate attempt to distract attention from the supervised neglect of NHS dentistry by successive governments. It could well backfire because a properly conducted review should shine a spotlight on NHS under funding and the failure in effective workforce planning.’
Simon Thackeray, of the British Association of Private Dentistry (BAPD), added: ‘The proposal for the CMA to investigate private dentistry fees is deeply
misguided.
‘Private dentistry has not caused the access crisis, inflationary pressure or workforce shortages. The root cause is decades of political neglect
of NHS dentistry.’
Petition on NHS dental access
This comes as more than 120,000 people signed a petition calling for the government to fund NHS dentistry.
A fake ‘DIY dentist’ with his own DIY dentistry kit travelled to Westminster last week with campaigners as they delivered the 38 Degrees petition to the Department of Health and Social Care.
The large UK-wide poll by Survation for 38 Degrees shows that in the past 12 months, costs have made it harder for the public to access dentistry:
- Polling shows when it comes to cost dentistry trumps prescriptions, eye tests and other private healthcare fees when it comes to barriers to care
- While two thirds (34%) of people said it was ‘often’ harder to get healthcare as a result of dentist fees over the last 12 months, the figure rises to 37% for 18-34 year olds and 38% for 35-44
- The figure rises to 40% for people in the north east. It’s also 40% for people with Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean, or African ethnicity, and 39% for Asian British ethnicity
- And with so many families struggling to manage the bills, the figure stand at 41% for people with a mortgage
- At 39% the figure is highest among Reform UK supporters, the highest for any party identifier.
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