Cuts in dentistry

Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, Chair of “North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System”

Samantha Allen, Chief Executive, “North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System”

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you as the Secretary of the Sunderland and District group of Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) on behalf of its members who are very concerned about the inadequacy of dental services in Sunderland following the recent closure of another NHS dentist (BUPA Dental Care Ltd).

On 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning dentistry (POD) was delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) with the aim of moving towards primary care services that are more joined up, locally led and locally responsive.

Unfortunately, the national and local picture concerning NHS dental services is anything but joined up. There is an unprecedented crisis in dentistry across England – clearly demonstrated in our ICS by the reports in The News and Star on 22 July 2022 that from 1st September 2022 there will be no vacancies for an NHS dentist anywhere in Cumbria.

The Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee in Sunderland considered a report on the dental service in Sunderland at its meeting of 5^th July 2022. I wrote to the Committee prior to that meeting advising them of our concerns then about the national picture and the local situation. I gave one example of the Silver and Charlton dental practice in Fulwell, Sunderland not accepting any more NHS patients. Subsequently, the minutes of the meeting recorded that the Committee had raised many of the points we were concerned about with Ms. Pauline Fletcher, Senior Primary Care Manager, NHS England but had been reassured that the NHS dentistry services in Sunderland were adequate with 22 NHS dental providers delivering general dental services across 26 locations .

Since then more practices have reduced their NHS capacity and at the last meeting of the Scrutiny Committee on 4^th July 2023 a further report on dental services in Sunderland detailed the loss of further UDAs across Sunderland including at the Silver and Charlton’s practice:

Mr G A Conlon (Washington) – 11,000 UDAs – NHS contract handed back wef 31.08.22 (9,237 UDAs re-commissioned)

Silver and Charlton – UDA reduction 11,717 – wef 31.10.22

Breeze Dental Practice (Ryhope) – 15,280 UDAs – NHS contract handed back wef 31.03.23

BUPA Dental Care Ltd (Hylton Road) – 23,665 UDAs – NHS contract handed back wef 30.6.23 ( The remaining BUPA dentist in Sunderland is 100% private and not closing).

NHS General Dental Service Contracts (Practices) have gone down to 19 from 22 and Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) commissioned per annum have reduced from 538,319 to 474,824.

We would contend that this is not adequate and there seems to be an increasing trend for practices in Sunderland to now only take private patients.

We do note that you acknowledge there are problems.

Para 8.6.4 in “Better Health and Wellbeing for All” – the Strategy for the North East and North Cumbria states clearly:

“The ICP recognises there are significant challenges with timely access to dentistry in parts of the region and that this is a matter of significant public concern. The ICB will work with the dentistry sector to improve access, through a combination of new models of care and a concerted effort on recruitment. The ICP will also work with NHS England to press for improvement to the national dentistry contract.”

Therefore, we would press you to make this a priority and, in particular, would like to know how you intend to improve access to NHS dental services and find new providers of those NHS dental services that have been lost in Sunderland.

With best wishes,

Laura Murrell

Secretary – KONP Sunderland and District