Dentists say funding plan will not transform services

The radical transformation needed for the survival of health service dentistry will not be delivered under proposals from the health minister, the British Dental Association (BDA) has said.

On Wednesday Mike Nesbitt provided details of a £7m investment in general dental services for 2025-26.

The chairwoman of the Northern Ireland Dental Practice Committee said dentists were "hoping for more" following the proposed dental funding.

Ciara Gallagher said she understood the budgetary constraints Nesbitt was working under but was disappointed for patients and colleagues.

Nesbitt also announced the expansion of the Happy Smiles programme.

"Alongside these specific interventions, I am clear that the general dental services, as with other services, require sustained effort to ensure sustainability over the longer term," he said.

"My department is committed to advancing work on the long-term future of dental services, to ensure patients can continue to access care when they need it, whilst taking measures to ensure the service is sustainable."

Nesbitt said he had approved the commissioning of a review into the cost of general dental services, which should be completed by the end of 2026.

He said this would "provide a robust evidence base to inform how the service will develop over the coming years".

Ms Gallagher said the funding was "largely a continuation" of measures that were already in place and it would make "even more difficulties for patients to access care".

"That's why we cannot recommend these proposals as they stand to the profession," she said.

"We urgently need radical transformation of dental services here, but this isn't it.

"Despite the efforts of the minister, our question to the executive is how can dentistry be transformed with such a constrained health budget?"

Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme, dentist Rachele Crozier said the hope was the "minister would do something that would help sustain and encourage people to remain in the NHS, and continue to provide NHS care".

She said dentists needed more clarity on the funding.

"There is not very much detail yet. Dentists don't really know how that funding will look, when it will come to us, how it is going to come to us," she said.

The system in its current state, she added, is "teetering on the brink of collapse and ultimately it is patients who will suffer."

The BDA has called for immediate short-term "bridging" support for dental practices as a lifeline to cover costs.

This follows a meeting with the health minister who outlined his department's proposals for 2025-26 to BDA representatives, following a debate on access to dentistry in Stormont on 27 May.

The BDA said that the "consensus is that the current dental contract isn't fit for purpose and in some instances fails to cover costs".

In April, BBC News NI learned that dentists in Northern Ireland had removed more than 53,000 NHS patients from their practice lists over the past two years.

During 2023 and 2024, 114 dentists handed back their NHS contracts to the Department of Health (DoH), with many of these now doing private work only.

Out of the 360 dental practices in Northern Ireland, only two are now fully NHS.