Employers should provide staff with access to dental care

Tax breaks for employers for the provision of occupational health should be extended to dentistry.

18 September, 2024 / infocus
 Will Peakin  

Tax breaks for employers for the provision of occupational health should be extended to dentistry, according to a British Dental Journal (BDJ) correspondent.

Former Harley Street dentist Gerald Feaver was responding to a BDJ editorial which said that the UK “not only cannot afford full access to NHS dental care for all adults free at the point of delivery but that it will never have the will to do so.” Mr Feaver said that the opinion expressed in the editorial is “one shared by many.”

He wrote: “An alternative model is urgently required and options need to be carefully considered. There now appears to be an acceptance politically of the need for a more pragmatic approach to the funding of healthcare.

“Perhaps the existing principle of tax breaks for employers for the provision of occupational health could be extended to dentistry.

“This called to mind my time as Head of Dental Services for Marks and Spencer when all staff were offered regular dental screening and preventive advice through a network of local dentists.

“Many other companies and organisations at the time provided access to dental practices which both reduced significantly the time lost through dental causes and improved access to dental care which today for so many is so difficult.

“There is now an urgent need to encourage businesses and industry to offer similar schemes in the future for the benefit of their employees.”

Tags: access / NHS Dentistry

Categories: News

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