DoH: Progress is being made
Friday, 06 Jun 2008 15:19
The benefit of reforms to the dental contract in 2006 may take a while to become evident, the chief dental officer has said.
Dr Barry Cockcroft said current figures do not include extra changes made in the last two years.
His comments follow figures from the NHS Information Centre which revealed a fall in the number of people who see a dentist since 2006 as well as wide variation in access to dental care.
"Since the dental reforms, we have made expanding NHS dentistry a national priority and have invested an extra £200 million this year to help strengthen local services and open more practices," Dr Cockcroft said.
"The Information Centre access figures released today do not reflect the new services that are opening all the time. Rather, the figures are retrospective and include the temporary decrease in access which occurred following the transition to the new system in 2006."
He added: "Due to the time delay between actual access levels and the development of official figures, it will take time before the current access situation is reflected in such figures."