BDA calls for changes to NHS dental contracts

Providing the update online, the association reported, “We are acutely aware of the difficulties being experienced across dentistry at the present time in delivering care in the face of the Omicron variant, and have once again raised these issues with NHS England and health minister Maria Caulfield.

“Things are particularly challenging for NHS practices in England now tasked with attempting to deliver a new 85 per cent contract target (90 per cent for orthodontics). We condemned the NHS England decision to impose these new targets when they were announced at the end of last year.

“The spread of the Omicron variant across society was already underway when these thresholds were set and the subsequent impact of the variant on the provision of healthcare, including dentistry, was entirely predictable. As anticipated, we are seeing a significant rise in staff absence, whether those staff are directly unwell with covid, as a consequence of isolation requirements and/or an inability to access testing in a timely manner. In addition, we know that many patients are also cancelling at short notice given the prevalence of Covid-19. All of these factors are predictably having a significant and ongoing impact on practices’ ability to reach the NHS thresholds.