Latest news with #CiaraGallagher
BBC News
29-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Proposed NI dentist funding 'disappointing'
The British Dental Association (BDA) has said the very survival of health service dentistry depends on radical transformation, but proposals announced by the health minister are "not it".On Wednesday Mike Nesbitt provided details of a £7m investment in General Dental Services for 2025/ Chair of Northern Ireland Dental Practice Committee has said dentists were "hoping for more" following the proposed dental Gallagher added she understood the budgetary constraints that Mike Nesbitt is working under but she is "disappointed" for patients and colleagues. Nesbitt also announced the expansion of the Happy Smiles health minister stated: "Alongside these specific interventions, I am clear that the General Dental Services, as with other services, require sustained effort to ensure sustainability over the longer term."My department is committed to advancing work on the long-term future of dental services, to ensure patients can continue to access care when they need it, whilst taking measures to ensure the service is sustainable."I have approved the commissioning of a General Dental Services cost of service review to be completed in 2025/26. This will in turn provide a robust evidence base to inform how the service will develop over the coming years." Ms Gallagher said the funding is "largely a continuation" of measures that are already in place and it will make it "even more difficulties for patients to access care"."That's why we cannot recommend these proposals as they stand to the profession," she said. "We urgently need radical transformation of dental services here, but this isn't it. Despite the efforts of the minister, our question to the Executive is how can dentistry be transformed with such a constrained health budget?" Dental contract 'not fit for purpose' The BDA has called for immediate short-term 'bridging' support for dental practices as a lifeline to cover follows a meeting with the health minister who outlined his department's proposals for 25/26 to BDA representatives, following a debate on access to dentistry in Stormont on 27 BDA said that the "consensus is that the current dental contract isn't fit for purpose and in some instances fails to cover costs". Last month, BBC News NI learned that dentists in Northern Ireland had removed more than 53,000 NHS patients from their practice lists over the past two 2023 and 2024, 114 dentists handed back their NHS contracts to the Department of Health (DoH), with many of these now doing private work of the 360 dental practices in Northern Ireland, only two are now fully NHS.
BBC News
13-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
NI dentists 'will have to shrink NHS element to keep lights on'
Dentists will have to reduce the NHS elements of their practice due to the hike in National Insurance contributions (NICs) this month, the Chair of the Northern Ireland Dental Practice Committee has Ciara Gallagher said patients "will end up doing without, healthcare inequalities will widen, and patients will suffer" as a currently pay a rate of 13.8% on employees' earnings above a threshold of £9,100 a the Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said this rate would increase to 15% in April 2025, and the threshold would be reduced to £5,000. 'Patients will suffer' Figures from 2022 revealed that 90% of dental practices in Northern Ireland were not accepting new adult patients and 88% were not accepting child Gallagher said that the "primary reason" for this is the cost of delivering care surpasses funding provided by the health department."We're now adding another cost to that, and that is going to make practices unviable," she told BBC's Sunday Politics programme."The difficulty that dentists are going to face is they will have to shrink the NHS element of their practices if they are to keep the lights on, and they will have to increase the private element."And that is going to be patients having to do without care, so the effect in dentistry is going to be rapid, and it is going to be even more difficult for patients to access NHS dental care," Dr Gallagher said."And we know the vast majority of people aren't in a position to pay for private care, and therefore they will end up doing without and healthcare inequalities will widen and patients will suffer." In 2024 it was announced that more than £9m was to be invested in dental services in Northern funding was aimed at bolstering support for dental practices and protecting public access to health service dental health minister also confirmed a 6% pay uplift for dentists for the current financial British Dental Association said the money "falls well short of what's needed" and urged further Gallagher told the programme that she has colleagues who work in areas of very high need and have to make the decision of whether or not to close due to financial constraints."At this point in time [they] have said, 'I may as well close the doors and go and work somewhere else'. "And in this particular practice, it's 6000 patients who will end up without care. "So there is a very real risk that practices in high-need areas are going to close."
