NHS dentists to be paid extra to work weekends and evenings

The government has announced that it will spend an extra £50 million that will be paid to dentists who work extra hours over weekends and in the evenings, to try and clear the nearly forty million missed appointments because of the pandemic.
Responding to the announcement, the British Dental Association says the £50m offered to help dentists is time limited, and the 350,000 extra appointments being planned will only start help catch up the 38 million slots missed during the pandemic.
It goes on to warn that many practices simply don’t have the capacity to increase their workload despite the extra investment.
The scheme, described by NHS England as a “treatment blitz”, will pay dentists more than a third extra to work outside their normal hours and to treat people in the early morning, evening, and at weekends.
Dentists have also been told to prioritise children, people with learning difficulties, autism or severe mental health problems.
Sara Hurley, Chief Dental officer for England, said: “More than 600 urgent dental health hubs were rapidly ramped up during the pandemic to deliver urgent care for patients and the NHS is now getting key services like dentistry back to pre-pandemic levels – injecting an extra £50 million into routine services will help provide check-ups and treatment for hundreds and thousands of people.”
Shawn Charlwood, Chair of the BDA general dental practice committee criticised the “time limited offer,” saying “After a decade of cuts a cash-starved service risks being offered money that can’t be spent.
“Hard-pressed practices are working against the clock and many will struggle to find capacity ahead of April for this investment to make a difference.
“Until today not a penny of the government’s multi-billion-pound catch-up programme had reached dentistry. This is progress but must be just the start if we are to rebuild a service millions depend on.”
Healthwatch England have pointed to there being serious issues with dentistry during the pandemic, with people being asked to wait as long as three years for an appointment and others advised to carry out “DIY dentistry”.
Finding an NHS dentist in the UK is not an easy task and it is unlikely that the extra money being paid to work weekends and evenings will make any difference, unless the NHS is able to encourage private practices to help clear the backlog.

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