Plans to increase funding for dentistry services in Northern Ireland have been deemed ‘insufficient’ by industry leaders.
The comments from the British Dental Association (BDA) Northern Ireland come after Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, confirmed an increased support fund from £1.6m to £2m for dental practitioners who continue to provide health service dental care in Northern Ireland.
This will be accompanied by funding to uplift some dental fees and continuation of the Enhanced Child Examination Scheme – which provides a one-off payment for seeing new patients aged 10 or younger.
But, although it welcomed the ‘significant efforts to earmark additional funding’, the BDA Northern Ireland said it was ‘far from the end of the road’.
It states: “Across Northern Ireland, we have 389,132 fewer patients registered to receive Health Service dental care since 2023, with less than half of the population registered.
“The number of dental treatments provided is around 33% below pre-pandemic levels.
“At the heart of the collapse is the gap between what the Department of Health pays for NHS dental care and the increased costs to deliver dental care to modern standards by practices.
“Our latest challenge to the NI Executive is clear – dental payment reform cannot wait.
“On the back of the Cost-of-Service review, we must go further and faster and make this service financially sustainable by moving to dental payment reform in the remainder of this Assembly mandate.”