The following statement is in the conservatives draft manifesto: Page 9 of 12 right hand column

“Under Labour fewer people are able to see an NHS dentist. So we will introduce a new dentistry contract that will tie newly-qualified dentists into the NHS for five years, allow dentists to fine people who consistently miss appointments, and stop paying dentists to carry out unnecessary appointments. These changes will allow us to give one million more people access to an NHS dentist and give every five year old a dental check-up.”

Makes you think doesn’t it? Here are a few of my concerns:

1) Almost every dentist does some private work because so many treatments are now unfeasible under the NHS contract. By unfeasible I mean, “will cost the practitioner considerably more do to than they will be paid  (not including their time)”. I don’t care what you say about swings and roundabouts people do not work for nothing and we can see this across the board, complex treatments are being avoided like the plague. If dentists can’t offer any private treatment is that then unethical… a reduction of options.

2) Is it legal to make people work for the NHS? I know of no other career where this is the case. It sets a dangerous president and I can’t see it being legal with EU laws. Also why stop at dentists, why not stop business graduates working in America, ban emmigration and make oversees graduates pay taxes forever. I know the university system is heavily subsidised but this is the case for hundreds of courses where would this end.

3) How will these poor 5 year tied in dentists be treated? I was absolutely broke when I came out of 5 years at university and that was only paying 1k a year for tuition. I’m not from the richest of backgrounds but I was helped out by my family and I still racked up a 30K debt. This included working full time in every holiday until 5th year and having a part time job for the last couple of years term time. I think it is inevitable a trapped work force will get paid less and receive worse conditions than they do now.

Add to this the plans to raise university tuition fees from 3K a year to 5K and you have graduates leaving with say 50K of debt! Quite the model for social mobility! What you will find is that only the richest people who can afford to be paid through university by there parents will do dentistry. To be honest the people who do it already are most likely to have dental parents. I know I would never have considered a 5 year degree if tuition was 3K as it is now. Social mobility is what keeps this country great, people awarded on merit and endeavour not their parents funding, I would be sad to see that end!

4) Will it change anything? To be honest most dentist don’t leave the NHS for 5 years anyway. It’s not easy to go private and compete against the NHS brand. I can see the same number of NHS dentists staying the same under this new deal. The only difference is there will be an excuse to pay them worse and guess what? After 5 years: resentment, more people leaving due to debt and being poorly treated. It might even reduce the work force!

5) It doesn’t address the problem. The work force leave the NHS because of the conditions they are forced to work in. Endless paperwork, reduction of funding and services they can provide. Lets face it no one has a clue what you can and can’t do on the NHS these days. We have no guidance, we lie to the public that all services are available, corporates reduce UDA values (there is no transparency), young dentists have little or no opportunity to tender a contract. The contract is also bound to change almost every day and we are left funding practices which are effectively built on uninsured quicksand.

People wouldn’t leave the NHS if they were given clear guidance on what they could provide. Were treated like professionals, were rewarded for giving excellent treatment within the guidelines provided and were allowed to provide what is not reasonably affordable on the NHS on a private basis. I would personally give anything to end the cloak and dagger offers of bonded crowns for molars or cobalt chrome dentures. Will someone just give everyone guidance on what is and what is not NHS. Fund us to do what is deemed appropriate (and affordable) properly, get rid of the cheats with careful monitoring and then leave us alone!

People don’t “go private” for the money. I think when you balance the loss of NHS pension, increased indemnity, training and start up costs they work out about even. People go private to work in the environment they can control, doing a job they love the best they can.

Hope that is not too much of  rant. I felt my cheeks fluching as I wrote.

I’m going to discuss my feelings on this at our regional young BDA tomorrow. That is a story for another day but I will say this, “If your not in a union, then you don’t have a voice at all and you really are just ranting on cyberspace!”.

I’m off to take a chill pill.

Please feel free to criticise everything I’ve written, I seem to remember I did vow never to get pollitical again… oh well!

Chris

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