Neophyte Liberal MP - Paul Rowen of Rochdale

The Rochdale Observer reports the efforts of Paul and young thruster Hobhouse to ensure the success of the proposed NHS contract with dentists. Currently (if you can find an NHS dentist who will treat you and your family) … Under the current NHS system, patients pay 80% of the cost of treatment up to a current maximum of £354.
Dentists receive continuing care payments for each NHS patient on their list. Some dentists are salaried, including those employed by hospitals and community dental services. Last year, average earnings for dentists were around £53,000.

Community dentists, called dental officers, offer treatment to vulnerable groups like the elderly and disabled, currently earn between £25,165 and £41,160. Senior dental officers can earn up to £53,820.

Dentists employed by the new trust based dental services pilots earn around £43,800. (compared with Doctors £56,000 plus various other payments.

Proposed changes will mean an increase in the minimum of the scale for dental officers of 13% at the lowest end of the scale and 9% at the top.

They may also offer certain treatment on a private basis to NHS patients while carrying out NHS treatment.

“Dentistry has reached crisis point” said Paul at this week’s Liberal Democrat party conference and said “ morale among dentists in the town had plummeted to an all-time low” he also lashed out at the government for failing to announce their new contract on time.

The contract, to be introduced next April, it is claimed will allow primary care trusts PCT’s to commission local dental services according to local needs.
Dentists will also be paid for overall level of care rather than each individual treatment carried out.

The British Dental Association however says the Government aren’t listening to them and ignoring their concerns.

Paul undertook a survey among dentists in Rochdale, said:

“I was shocked at the results. It is apparent dentists feel undervalued and look to the private sector to continue their work.This Labour government promised in 1997 and 2001 that anyone who wanted an NHS dentist should receive one. This is another let down.”

“Our children in Rochdale have some of the worst teeth in the country and Tony Blair should hang his head in shame.

Together with Hobhouse, erstwhile Conservative MP, who has had a Damascene conversion to the Liberal democrat cause , proposed that Dentists be paid a flat fee per patient in the practice. Simplistic and meaningless without any sums attached. The basic grievance is , dentists want more pay, and less drudgery. It is often forgotten that dentists die earlier than any other category of worker which is reflected in their pension arrangements.


Lester Ellman, Chair of the BDA's General Dental Practice Committee said on 23rd September in a message to the 18,000 members of the BDA.

“ The Government's proposals for NHS dentistry add up to a wasted opportunity and will do nothing to solve the current problems experienced by many people who struggle to find a dentist. Our message to the Government is that they need to look again at the new contracts which they're offering the profession and take seriously the concerns that are being raised by the BDA.”

He also criticised the chronic underfunding of NHS dentistry, highlighted by the National Audit Office last year which found that spending on the NHS as a whole had increased by 75 per cent since 1990/91 but spending on dentistry had risen by only nine per cent.

He told members that the proposals will not achieve the Government’s original goal of enabling a more preventative approach to dental care.

The proposals will also fail to tackle the excessive workload experienced by dentists working within the current out-of-date NHS system - a situation which the Government claims reforms would address.

This one will run and run,