Kristopher Barker, Bristol North Socialist Party
What do you expect from an industry in private hands since 1951, after a brief flirtation with being in public hands as part of the NHS?
Queues hundred’s in length were the sight on a cold and miserable Bristol pavement on a Monday at 6am, just to be placed on the register of the NHS dentist. The ex-Bupa dentist practice, now accepting NHS patients, reopened the same day.
This clearly shows the vacuum of NHS dentistry in Bristol. The Save St Pauls Dentist Campaign, a grassroots movement, has been praised as being instrumental to the return of such a vital public service.
The £3 billion NHS dental budget has not changed in a decade, equating to a £1 billion cut in real terms. 6.5 million children in England alone have not stepped foot in an NHS dentist for at least a year, an increase of a third since 2019.
The queues in Bristol aren’t just a one-off. There was a very similar story in Kings Lynn in 2023 (see ‘NHS dental crisis’ at socialistparty.org.uk), it’s clear more will happen in the future.
And yet we are expected to accept the myth that the private firms are the most efficient method of resource distribution! Faced with ever-shrinking funding for delivering NHS services, dental practices are choosing to operate privately. Instead, we need dentalcare fully funded and fully in public hands, so that services can be planned to meet need.
