As the BDJ went to press, the BDA demanded an urgent meeting with Health Minister Rosie Winterton to discuss fears about the impact on patients of the new contract.

Lester Ellman, Chair of the BDA's General Dental Practice Committee (GDPC), will tell the Minister that the contract will fail to achieve the Government's aims of improving patients' access to dentistry, improving the nation's oral health and raising the quality of patient care. The 1 April 2006 changes to NHS dentistry are untested and the new monitoring of targets (counting 'units of dental activity' – UDAs) is causing confusion across the NHS which is unable to cope with the new arrangements, said Dr Ellman.

“The situation is a shambles for both patients and the profession. Our fear is that the new contract will do nothing to improve access to care for patients or improve the quality of care. The Government claims to be committed to preventive care yet that does not seem to apply to dentistry. We're now faced with a contract that puts dentists on a new treadmill and means they can't give the care and time that they want to give to patients. This is bad for patients, bad for dentists and disastrous for NHS dentistry.”

Dr Ellman will call for a suspension of the UDA system and a consultation with dentists on other options to be tested and demonstrated to work. He will also demand a review of the contract, once operative, to assess its impact on patient care. The GDPC supported a motion approved by the BDA's Representative Body (28 January) that “The BDA believes that the Government's aims of securing patient access, improving oral health and raising the quality of patient care will not be achieved by the imposition of this target driven NHS contract.”

For the latest on the NHS changes, including information on explaining the reforms to patients, please visit the BDA website at www.bda.org.