The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Dame Andrea Leadsom)
The Department recently published our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, which will make dental services faster, simpler and fairer to patients and will fund around 2.5 million additional appointments (or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment). The plan sets out a number of actions that will improve access for patients, by helping the sector to recover activity more quickly, addressing underlying issues and setting out the action needed for longer-term reform of the system. Band Description From April 2024 (proposed) 1 This band includes examination, diagnosis (including radiographs), advice on how to prevent future problems, scale and polish if clinically needed, and preventative care (e.g. applications of fluoride varnish or fissure sealant). £26.80 2 This band covers everything listed in band 1, plus any further treatment such as fillings, root canal work or extractions. £73.50 3 This band covers everything in bands 1 and 2, plus course of treatment including crowns, dentures, bridges and other laboratory work. £319.10 Urgent This band covers urgent assessment and specified urgent treatments such as pain relief or a temporary filling or dental appliance repair. £26.80
The National Health Service (Dental Charges) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (“the Amendment Regulations”) were laid in Parliament on 1 March 2024 to increase national health service dental patient charges in England from 1 April 2024.
NHS dental patient charges provide an important revenue source for NHS dentistry and are typically uplifted on 1 April each financial year. In April 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care implemented the first dental patient charge uplift since December 2020. The economic climate at the time, along with an extended period between uplifts and increasing costs of delivering NHS dental care, meant that a higher than usual uplift of 8.5% came into force in April 2023. This allows a smaller uplift for 2024-25 without adversely affecting NHS budgets. It is important that current and future work to improve NHS dentistry is not undermined by the risk of reduced funding because of lower NHS dental patient charge revenue.
Therefore, from 1 April 2024, dental patient charges in England will increase by 4%. This means that a dental charge payable for a band 1 course of treatment will rise by £1, from £25.80 to £26.80. For a band 2 course of treatment, there will be an increase of £2.80 from £70.70 to £73.50. A band 3 course of treatment will increase by £12.30, from £306.80 to £319.10.
Details of the revised charges for 2023-24 can be found in the table below:
We will continue to provide financial support to those who need it most by offering exemptions to the dental patient charges for a range of circumstances. Patients will continue to be entitled to free NHS dental care if they are under 18, or under 19 and in full-time education; pregnant or have had a baby in the previous 12 months; are being treated in an NHS hospital and have their treatment carried out by the hospital dentist (patients may have to pay for dentures or bridges); receiving low-income benefits; or are under 20 and a dependant of someone receiving low-income benefits. Support is also available through the NHS low income scheme for those patients who are not eligible for exemption or full remission.
Whilst we recognise that this uplift follows a higher than usual uplift of 8.5% in April 2023, we consider that this is proportionate, as the cost of delivering NHS dental care continues to increase and dental patient charges have typically been uplifted by 5% each year, which is above the rate of inflation. The 4% proposed uplift creates a real terms increase of 2% since April 2023. Dental patients will benefit from the continued provision that this important revenue supports.
In addition, the Department is seeking an amendment to a previous change made to the National Health Service (General Dental Services Contracts) Regulations 2005 and the National Health Service (Personal Dental Services Agreements) Regulations 2005 in June 2023. This amendment seeks to clarify that the powers regarding unilateral rebasing of underperforming NHS dental contracts applies on a prospective only basis, in line with the views of the Joint Commission on Statutory Instruments.
By providing clarity in this previous amendment, NHS dental commissioners will be able to prospectively rebase persistently underperforming contracts and improve access to NHS dental care for patients.
These measures are in addition to the reforms announced in July 2022—the first changes to the dentistry contract since 2006. We are also working on further reforms to the 2006 contract and we expect to develop options for consultation with the dental profession in advance of a further announcement later this year. Any changes would be phased in from 2025 onwards.
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