BDA Urges Government to Protect Dental Public Health
The British Dental Association has urged the government to protect dental public health services, amidst proposals to reform NHS commissioning.
Representatives have warned that public dental health must be safeguarded if the proposed reforms are to be a success. The BDA has published a blueprint of dental public health measures, which identifies crucial areas to be protected and highlights issues of concern that must be addressed, in order for standards of oral health to improve across the UK. The BDA says that there could be “serious problems” if these concerns and ideas are ignored by the government.
The publication, Dental Public Health Futures, has been compiled by a group of dental health experts across England. The main comment of the report is that dental health is improving across the UK, but there is still a lot to do and there is still the potential for problems, if areas of concern are not addressed in the near future.
Christopher Allen, chair of the BDA’s Dental Public Health Working Group, said that recent proposals by the government show that the concerns of health professionals are being taken on board, however, he stressed that this must be the case for dental public health as well. Mr Allen has advised the government to consider the suggestions and proposals carefully in order to protect the public and raise standards of oral health.
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