Dental crisis deepening (From Western Telegraph)

Dental crisis deepening

DEAR EDITOR, - Your correspondent D. C. Waller (March 2nd) is right to blame the Government for the current dental crisis, but their predecessors are also responsible, particularly for having seriously eroded some of the underlying foundations of dental care in the UK.

Being at the end of a 36-year career as an NHS dentist, I feel that there are two principal reasons for the severe problems with NHS dentistry today.

Firstly, the Government's perennial and principal aim, regardless of which party is in power and which is much the same as their approach to the rest of the NHS, is to achieve year on year a higher output of treatment for an ever-reducing cost.

This is good news for the taxpayer, but for those at the sharp end this creates ever increasing burdens.

Then some intelligent boffin rather too close to Whitehall came up with the notion that this country was going to be over-manned with dentists because improvements in dental health were going to drastically reduce the needs for dental treatment.

The Government of the day latched onto this idea and in the early 1990s not only closed down three major dental schools entirely, but also ordered cutbacks on the intake of new students in some of the others.

We now have a severe shortage of dentists in this country which is going to take a long time to redress, even though some dental schools are only now being expanded to increase the numbers being trained.

To achieve the Government's published target income, an NHS dentist has to work an ever-increasing treadmill by either putting in very long hours or cutting corners to achieve the turnover.

Many of us quickly abandon ideas of trying to reach this income level and settle for less as the stresses become too great and the quality of life becomes more important.

For others, the answer is to opt out of the monotonous treadmill of the NHS and develop private practice where they can give the time they need to their work and at the same time achieve the income they feel they deserve.

What of the future? The Department of Health calmly announced at the end of last year that they were going to recruit 1,000 additional dentists by October 2005. Have they found a secret factory somewhere that is going to magically produce this great number in such a short space of time? Is this on our planet? Are they?

Also, there is a new contract currently under a troubled negotiation for NHS dentists.

As the Government's ultimate aim will again be to achieve an even greater turnover for a lower cost, and the profession's hopes lie in somehow getting off the perpetual treadmill, it is difficult to see how this circle can ever be squared.

Regrettably, the future looks bleak as the situation can only get even worse, before it can improve.

ANTHONY MILES 27 High Street, Neyland.