New three year plan for dentistry is underway
Work on a new three year plan to improve NHS dentistry in Derby and Derbyshire has begun.
The 2025-28 plan aims to:
- invest in the areas of greatest need
- reduce inequalities in access to dental care and inequalities in oral health
- improve access to NHS dentistry
The new plan was agreed after extensive consultation with dentists, council public health practitioners, Healthwatch and other stakeholders last year.
Improvements have already been made in the year 2024/25 to kick start the plan and further detailed planning is underway for the 2025/26 year.
Clive Newman, director of primary care at NHS Derby and Derbyshire, said: “We have worked together with the dental community and with our public health colleagues to agree a three year plan.
“That plan aims to address the real problems that are caused by poor oral health and inability to see an NHS dentist.
“We know that access to an NHS dentist and ability to pay for treatment is also a cause of health inequalities.
“People in Bolsover, for example, have worse access to a dentist and have worse oral health than those in other more affluent parts of the county.
“We will focus our efforts on the areas where need is the greatest so people can get the care they need.
“We have made a start already in the 2024/25 financial year and we are continuing to work with our partners on the detail of our 2025/26 plan.”
Initiatives already put in place during the 2024/25 year include:
- a higher standard rate of payment to encourage dentists to remain in the NHS
- a “new patient premium” to encourage dentists to take on new patients
- “golden hello” payments for four full-time equivalent dentists who commit to working in the NHS for three years
- allowing dentists to use 110% of budget allocations, so they can see more patients
- flexible schemes to allow dentists to use their NHS funding to see priority patients
- funding for additional children access to dentists
- funding more urgent and routine dental treatment sessions in Bolsover – the area that has the worst levels of decay and access in the county
The 2025-28 plan will also see:
- around 16,000 additional urgent care appointments in 2025/26 – which is Derby and Derbyshire’s share of the 700,000 urgent appointments announced by the government
- more support to children to look after their teeth
- commissioning of new dental services in areas that are underserved
- recommissioning of contracts in the areas of greatest need, including Bolsover, areas of deprivation and rural areas where access is poor, securing dental services for more than 40,000 people
- provision of dental examination and care in care homes and in special education settings
- reviews of community dental service, orthodontic services and procurement of domiciliary and intermediate minor oral surgery services
The plan has been put in place in response to national guidance and local assessment of need.
There has been an increase in patients receiving NHS dental care in Derby and Derbyshire. Recent analysis has shown a 4.1% increase in activity , from 87% of contracted activity in 2023/24 to 91.1% of contracted activity being delivered in 2024/25.
Analysis has shown the number of patients being seen by the county’s dentists in mid 2024 was 91 per cent of what it was before the covid pandemic.
An oral health needs assessment for Derby and Derbyshire showed:
- Poor oral health is strongly associated with deprivation and that deprived groups are receiving less NHS dental care than more affluent groups
- 17 per cent of children in Derby and Derbyshire have experience of tooth decay, and of those the average number of teeth decayed is 3.4
- In Bolsover the figure is 25 per cent , in Derby it is 21 per cent, while in the Derbyshire Dales is nine per cent.
- Those with the greatest risk of poor oral health are also those who are least able to access care
Reports from Healthwatch Derby and Derbyshire also found people were very concerned about access to a dentist, that dentistry is expensive, that many people are living in pain.
Details of the 2025/26 dental plan are expected to be shared with the public and stakeholders in the summer.