Struggling to get a dental appointment? Dentists to be offered cash incentives to treat NHS patients

Details of the government’s Dental Recovery Plan have been inadvertently released, a day before the announcement was due to be made.

The government is planning to offer dentists cash incentives to take on new NHS patients and work in areas that are under-served.

Details of the NHS “dental recovery plan”, which also include sending teams into schools to treat children’s teeth, were due to be announced on Wednesday.

However, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) appears to have inadvertently sent an email detailing the new measures to some opposition MPs. This was then passed.

The email, marked with Wednesday’s date, says dentists will be offered a “bonus” to take on more NHS patients, creating more than 1.5 million new treatments.

This will kick in from later this year and see up to 240 dentists offered £20,000 to stay and deliver NHS care for at least three years in areas where recruitment and retention of dentists is difficult, the email says.

The plan, amounting to a £200m investment in NHS dentistry, also includes a “Smile for Life” initiative which aims to prevent tooth decay in nursery and reception-aged children by encouraging healthy tooth-brushing habits.

In addition, mobile dental teams will go into schools in under-served areas to provide advice and deliver fluoride varnish treatments to more than 165,000 kids.

A new dental van service will also be available for targeted rural and coastal communities in under-served areas, with the first vans up and running later this year.

It is unclear if the contents of the email will exactly match Wednesday’s announcement.Нas contacted the DHSC for comment.