Comprehensive Spending Review - BDA Response

It's 7:30 Sunday morning and my 2 year old is ready for the day - I've got about 2 minutes before he jumps on me or the laptop. I suppose I should be writing about Englands great win last night in the semi-final of the rugby world cup in Paris, and Jonny Wilkinson's legendary kicking, but what I'd really like to post here is the BDAs response to the governments Comprehensive Spending Review announced last week.

 

  

 

Responding to the announcement of the Comprehensive Spending Review today, the British Dental Association has called on the government to ensure that funding for NHS dentistry keeps pace with funding for other parts of the NHS.

 

Despite the unprecedented investment in the National Health Service, the British Dental Association estimates that the proportion of NHS funding allocated to NHS dentistry has actually fallen from about 3.1 per cent in 2002-03 to 2.8 per cent in 2007-08.

 

And in the period 1990-91 to 2003-04, according to the National Audit Office, overall NHS funding per capita increased by 75 per cent. Spending on high street dentistry per capita during the same period increased by only nine per cent.

 

Peter Ward, Chief Executive of the BDA, said:

 

"Investment in NHS dentistry remains inadequate as the government itself acknowledges that around two million people who want to access NHS dental care are unable to do so.

 

"If people are to get the NHS dental care they want, then the level of spending on dentistry must catch up with the investment in the rest of the NHS.

 

"It's also crucial that primary care trusts, now responsible for commissioning local dentistry, understand the history of underspending which has seen dentistry lag behind other areas of health care. ”