THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR EQUITY IN DENTAL HEALTH
Submission to All Party Group on Primary Care and Public Health 1999 Inquiry into Health Improvement Programmes
Health Improvement Programmes (HImPs) place a statutory duty on health
authorities to improve the health of their population, and to work in
partnership with local authorities and others to identify how local action on
social, environmental and economic issues will make the most impact on
people’s health.
The public health White Paper Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation highlights the persisting wide inequalities in dental health in the UK, and refers to the Acheson report which recommends the fluoridation of the water supply as the most effective way of reducing these inequalities. Tooth decay remains a significant problem in socially deprived areas of the UK where there is no water fluoridation, including large parts of the North West of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, the North, Yorkshire and parts of inner London. It is essential that HImPs drawn up for these communities address this particular oral health need. To this end, the National Alliance for Equity in Dental Health would expect to see the relevant HImPs contain a commitment to fluoridate the water supply; this being the single most effective measure available to health authorities to reduce tooth decay rates in areas where they remain unacceptably high.
The Alliance is a consortium of more than 40 leading scientific, medical and voluntary organisations (see list attached). These organisations support water fluoridation, and wish to see extension to cover those areas in greatest need (detailed above).
Health authorities, local authorities and other partners should be obliged to justify both inclusions and exclusions in their HImPs in terms of expected outcomes. For example, it has come to our notice that a number of local authorities have refused to sign up to their local HImPs until the reference to water fluoridation has been removed. This Alliance believes that such authorities should be required to justify this action and demonstrate awareness of the likely consequences of this decision for the population i.e. continued unacceptably high levels of tooth decay.
NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR EQUITY IN DENTAL HEALTH
| Action and Information on Sugars | Institute of Health Education |
| Association of Directors of Public Health Medicine | Manchester Children’s Hospitals NHS Trust |
| British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry | MENCAP |
| British Association for Community Child Health | National Association for Dentistry in Health Authorities and Trusts |
| British Dental Association | National Dental Health Education Group |
| British Dental Health Foundation | NHS Confederation |
| British Dental Hygienists Association | NHS Consultants Association |
| British Dietetic Association | North West Public Health Association |
| British Fluoridation Society | Oral Health Promotion Research Group |
| British Medical Association | Royal College of General Practitioners |
| British Orthodontic Society | Royal College of Nursing |
| British Society of Dentistry for the Handicapped | Scottish Association for Community Child Health |
| British Society of Gerodontology | Socialist Health Association |
| British Society for Paediatric Dentistry | The Birmingham Children’s Hospital NHS Trust |
| Community Practitioners’ & Health Visitors’ Association | The National Autistic Society |
| Denplan | The Patients Association |
| Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England | The Royal Society of Health |
| Faculty of General Dental Practitioners (UK) of the Royal College of Surgeons of England | UK Public Health Association |
| Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom | Unison Health Care |
| FDI World Dental Federation | |
| Health Education Authority | |
| Help The Aged |