Abstract
No dentist wishes to deregister their child patients, but in most practices the remaining NHS patients are subsidized by the private ones. Minister of Health Rosie Winterton chooses not to believe this, so the new contract due in April is in the form of a ‘take it or leave it’ ultimatum. Not only is this a highrisk gamble and poor judgement, it is a result of a total failure to consult with dentists working in high street practices, who have solutions to the present problems. In their 2005 Manifesto, the Labour Party wrote ‘We will undertake a fundamental review of the scope and resourcing of NHS dentistry.’