BDA welcomes climbdown on plans to impose new contract

The British Dental Association (BDA) has responded positively to news that the government has withdrawn its threat to impose a new NHS contract.

Hospital dentists are joining medics in suspending plans for industrial action until further notice following this climbdown, and the BDA is hopeful that a more amicable agreement can be reached over the contract arrangements.

A BDA ballot on industrial action showed that 100 percent of voters backed moves to join medics on their second planned day of industrial action, which was set for December 8th before the recent development.

Mick Armstrong, chair of the British Dental Association, said: "Like our medical colleagues, dentists never wanted to see this dispute get so far. Now that the single biggest obstacle has been removed we are cautiously optimistic that real progress is possible."

This comes after a recent survey by Wesleyan showed that the impact the new NHS contract will have on patients' ability to access essential services tops the list of dentists' concerns about the contract, with 68 percent of respondents citing it as one of their biggest fears.