Shortage of dentists willing to work for NHS left around £400million unspent

• The underspend could have been used for extra appointments amid huge waits
• Healthwatch England described the revelation as an ‘absolute scandal’

Around £400million allocated for dental care went unspent this year because of a shortage of dentists willing to do NHS work. 

The record underspend could have provided Britons with millions of extra appointments at a time when many struggled to be seen. 

Patient watchdog Healthwatch England described the revelation as an ‘absolute scandal’. 

The number of dentists carrying out NHS work in England fell sharply in the first year of the pandemic and remains below pre-covid levels, according to NHS Digital figures. 

Data for 2022/23, released to the British Dental Association via freedom of information requests and shared with Health Service Journal, indicates dentists are delivering significantly lower activity volumes than they are contracted for. 

The record underspend could have been used for extra appointments amid huge waits (file image)

It estimates this will result in an underspend of around £400million for the year, representing around 13 per cent of the £3billion primary dentistry budget. 

This is more than double the previous record underspend under the current reporting regime, which started in 2012. 

The unspent funding is due to be used to plug budget deficits in other services. The estimate was not disputed by NHS England. 

The BDA says the national dentistry contract does not reflect the costs of NHS work, which means practices are struggling to fill vacancies to maintain previous volumes, and opting not to do the work. 

The BDA has highlighted what it describes as an ‘access crisis’ in community dentistry in recent years, while Healthwatch has raised concerns about entire counties where practices are closed to new NHS patients. 

Jacob Lant, head of policy at Healthwatch England, said: ‘The fact that nearly £400million of funding is going unused is an absolute scandal, and it is patients paying the price for a dental contract that should have been ripped up years ago. 

‘We want to see this money protected for dentistry and rolled over. 

‘Working together with dentists, the NHS should use the funds to create millions of extra appointments in the new financial year.’ 

Eddie Crouch, chair of the BDA, said patients will ‘struggle to comprehend’ the record underspend amid an ‘access crisis’. 

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘The number of dentists practising in the NHS increased by over 500 last year and we recently implemented reforms to provide fairer pay for practices to take on high needs patients and require dentists to make it clear which practices are taking on new patients and the services available.

Patient watchdog Healthwatch England described the revelation as an ‘absolute scandal’

‘We know we must do more and we are working with the sector and NHSE to consider further improvements.’ 

Under the 2006 dental contract, funding is allocated to practices and then ‘clawed back’ at the end of the year if they do not hit full levels of contracted activity.  

The amount clawed back is recorded as a budget underspend by NHSE.

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