More than 100 family dentists in England have signed a letter to the Telegraph, accusing Ministers of hiding the true state of NHS dentistry from patients, calling the service ‘compromised and mismanaged.’ The clinics have spoken out in response to the Francis Report, which revealed failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust that let to 1,200 deaths.
In the letter, the dentists complain that ‘We are witnessing the manipulation of Government figures and statistics that hide the rotten truth.’ Adding ‘The Government and their civil servants continue to promise the public that all the dental clinical health and prevention needs for the population of England are met under the NHS dentistry system, to the highest standards, yet clearly under their continuous limitations and compromises on a national scale, that is frankly mission impossible for dental professionals to deliver from the start.’
Dr Anthony Kilcoyne, the West Yorkshire dentist who organised the letter, said that he and his colleagues felt ‘massive frustration’ at the pressure that was being put onto dentists to see patients as quickly as possible; a problem that he says has been getting worse since Labours treatment targets were introduced to NHS dentistry in 2006. He says ‘All the targets are biased towards quantity rather than quality.’
NHS England’s chief dental officer, Barry Cockcroft, was not in agreement with the dentist’s viewpoint, saying that access to NHS treatment has been improving since 2010. He also said that ‘There is no credible evidence to support the suggestion that there is a ‘growing disaster’ in NHS dentistry.’