A UNION which represents dentists across the UK has dubbed Bradford as “ground zero” for a broken NHS dental system.

It comes as the British Dental Association (BDA) is calling for money to be ploughed into NHS dental services in places like Bradford as the Telegraph & Argus’s Stop the Rot campaign gets underway.

The body says Freedom of Information figures show that more than £9m across Yorkshire was taken out of the dental budget in 2016 due to NHS dentists not hitting “tough targets” set by Government in their contracts.

The BDA says the money, known as ‘clawback’ is not reallocated to NHS dental services in Yorkshire as a “matter of course”.

In Bradford, that figure stood at £145,174 and the BDA says that while “small-time” and limited pilots recycling the clawback have run, the area requires health bosses to commission more NHS dental services in the long-term.

BDA Chair Mick Armstrong, who is also a dentist in West Yorkshire said: “Bradford is ground zero for a broken NHS dental system. When funding is set aside to cover barely half the population, and our contracts effectively cap patient numbers it’s the public who lose out.

“There’s no logic to it. Colleagues who have capacity to do more are told to stand idle while patients face two year waiting lists. Tooth decay is a wholly preventable disease, but every day in local hospitals kids are going under general anaesthetic for multiple extractions.

“Each year in Yorkshire millions of pounds set aside for NHS dentistry are taken away from NHS dentistry. This money should be ensuring patients in areas like Bradford can secure access to basic services, and not just helping Whitehall accountants balance the books.”

The BDA says the current dental contract sets limits on the numbers of patients NHS dentists can treat, with dentists penalised if they fail to hit targets for curative treatments like fillings.

It says activity targets, known as UDAs, are bad for both patients and dentists and it will continue to push for a contract that puts prevention first.

NHS England says it is currently reviewing how access to NHS dentists across the region can be improved.