NHS England has instructed Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to arrange additional urgent dental appointments for the next financial year, with funding sourced from existing dental allocations. This directive, issued on February 21, 2025, is part of the government’s efforts to fulfill its pledge of providing 700,000 extra urgent and emergency dental appointments between April 2025 and March 2026, specifically targeting underserved areas where access to dental care is limited.
ICBs will be tasked with offering a set minimum number of urgent care appointments, determined based on unmet need. For example, North East and North Cumbria ICB will provide the highest number of appointments, totaling 57,559, followed by Cheshire and Merseyside ICB (46,617) and West Yorkshire ICB (32,312). These appointments will exceed the baseline established during the 12-month period leading up to June 2024, with each ICB to receive a confirmed baseline figure.
ICBs have flexibility in how they commission these extra appointments, which can be achieved through new contracts, modifications to existing ones, or the use of flexible commissioning. Further guidance, including national service specifications and clinical protocols, will be provided to assist ICBs in developing their local commissioning plans.
In a related development, the government has decided to scrap the “new patient premium” introduced as part of the 2024 dental recovery plan. The British Dental Association (BDA) welcomed the new initiatives but expressed concerns about the limited scale of the measures. Shiv Pabary, Chair of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, argued that the additional funding would only provide a modest increase in appointment availability—just two extra slots per month for each NHS dentist.
Pabary further criticized the decision to recycle funds, rather than allocate new resources, and voiced concerns that the Treasury’s approach is aimed at postponing significant improvements in dental care until after the current Parliament. He stressed the need for comprehensive reform of the dental contract to address the root causes of the dental crisis.
Ruth Rankine, Director of Primary Care at the NHS Confederation, acknowledged the importance of these extra appointments in addressing oral health inequalities, particularly in disadvantaged regions, but emphasized that these steps alone would not resolve the long-term challenges in NHS dentistry. She called for a broader strategy focused on prevention and a reformed contract that rewards outcomes rather than the outdated Units of Dental Activity payment model.
Health Minister Stephen Kinnock reaffirmed the government’s commitment to improving dental care access, with a focus on prevention, retention of NHS dentists, and reforms to make NHS work more appealing to dental professionals. He noted that these efforts would take time, but the additional appointments represent a significant step toward revitalizing NHS dentistry.
This announcement follows the success of an urgent dental care pilot in Sussex, which expanded following positive results from high-street dental clinics. However, a recent National Audit Office report revealed that the dental recovery plan is not on track to meet its goal of providing 1.5 million additional courses of NHS dental treatment this year.
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