To what extent is current NHS dental contracts policies reflective of the Human Development Approach?

Objectives: This critical review aimed to describe the extent to which the current NHS dental contract policy is reflective of the Human Development Approach, which is believed to have the same fundamental principles of the NHS in providing fair and just health services after 70 years of the NHS establishment.
Methods: A Critical review of NHS dental contracts from 2006 to 2019 was conducted, since the introduction of the 2006 GDS dental contract. Electronic databases were searched for literature on the dental contracts during this period of time. Articles were reviewed independently by the two authors to check their relevance.

Results: A total of 11 articles met the inclusion criteria; 54.5% of the result papers were aiming to evaluate the 2006 GDS contract policy from different aspects including motivation of the establishing of the contract, perspectives and outcomes of the contract. While 18.2 % of the result articles discussed the importance of the incentives and the use of a blended model which is missing in the 2006 GDS contract. Also, 18.2% of the result papers discussed the challenges facing the NHS dental contracts reforms, and only 9.1% were about understanding the NHS dental contracts in a wider context.
Conclusions: Despite the limited studies that aim to assess the NHS dental contracts, it seems that the current NHS dental contract policy (2006 GDS) does not reflect the Human Development Approach. However, there is considerable instability in the decision-making process regarding the currently used dental contracting policies. Further evaluation is needed to the NHS dental contracting policies using a normative framework like the HDA.