LONDON, England – The British Dental Association (BDA) today gave a broad welcome to the Government's announcement of new funds for NHS dentistry. Describing the extra 65.2 million as a step in the right direction, the BDA said that they looked forward to a renewed commitment to NHS dentistry from the Government. Ian Wylie, the BDA's Chief Executive, said of the announcement:

"This extra funding is welcome, especially as we are on the brink of a radical shake-up of NHS dentistry. It will go some way to helping boost the morale of dentists working in the NHS, but there is still some way to go. The BDA will continue to press the Government for greater investment in training places for dentistry, as well as better terms and conditions to encourage recruitment and retention of dentists within the NHS. Our goal is an NHS dental service which works for dentists and patients alike."

The BDA was pleased to see the inclusion of funding for information technology within the announcement. Dentists' use of electronic records is already widespread and this injection of funding will assist with their integration within the wider NHS IT strategy.

1. The 65.2m will be used as follows:

• 35m to enable Primary Care Trusts to improve access, choice and quality for patients in areas that have problems;
• 30m for Information Technology to integrate dentistry within the national IT programme;
• 200,000 to develop dental leadership skills within Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts to support them with the dental change agenda.

2. The Health & Social Care Bill which is currently going through Parliament will devolve commissioning powers for NHS dentistry down to local Primary Care Trust (England) and Local Health Board (Wales) level. It may also see the end of the fee-per-item-of-service system which many dentists blame for the difficulties currently faced by the service.

3. The BDA is the largest organisation representing dentists in the UK, with over 20,000 members in all fields of dentistry.

4. For further information, please contact the BDA Media & Public Relations team on 020 7563 4146

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