Lack of access to NHS dentists a disgrace says MP
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- Published: Wednesday, 13 September 2017 08:08
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Judith Cummins Labour MP for Bradford South branded children’s lack of access to NHS dentistry an ‘absolute disgrace’ during a House of Commons adjournment debate. She called on the Government to ‘get on’ with dental contract reform. Replying junior health minister, Steve Brine, said the Government had pledged to ‘support NHS dentistry to improve coverage and reform contracts’.
Judith Cummins opened the short debate by saying: “What we see unfolding in NHS dental practices in communities right across this country is yet another crisis.” She referred to a BBC investigation which had revealed that of 2,500 dental practices listed on the NHS Choices website, “half were not willing to accept new adult NHS patients.” She said this was a disgrace.
She declared: “Millions of people each and every year are being left without access to an NHS dentist. The human cost of this crisis is huge. Families, parents and young children are suffering horrific, lifelong and extreme damage to their teeth and to their oral health. Stories of people resorting to pulling out their own teeth are increasingly commonplace. Images of young children—toddlers—with mouths full of rotten teeth are less and less of a rarity.”
She called on the Government to ‘get on’ with dental contract reform and to bring forward ‘a coherent strategy’ to tackle the inadequacies and inequalities she had set out. She concluded: “Indifference is not an option; Government need to act now to stop this crisis.”
During her speech, there were some supportive interventions from other West Yorkshire MPs. Dr Philippa Whitford, an SNP MP from Ayrshire, and a former member of the Health Select Committee stressed the need for prevention and pointed to the success in Scotland of the Childsmile initiative.
Replying to the debate, junior health minister and MP for Winchester, Steve Brine, acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, but reeled off a series of statistics showing that access was improving and that children’s oral health was better than it has ever been. But he added: “more needs to be done to reduce the remaining inequalities in access”.
He said that contract reform was vital and that the prototypes were currently being evaluated although could not give a date when this would be published. But he said: “let me be clear that they ?will have to prove that they can increase dental access before we consider rolling them out as a new dental contract.” He added: “We have to make sure that it is right and that what we put in place is better than what was there before.”
He said that to tackle inequalities, NHS England had been leading the Starting Well programme, alongside Public Health England. He also said he was aware that NHS England ran an initiative to tackle the dental access issues in west Yorkshire. Twenty-five practices participated in the pilot and almost 7,800 appointments were made available for new patients. The pilot was being evaluated.
He concluded by quoting from the Conservative manifesto at the last election which said they were committed “to support NHS dentistry to improve coverage and reform contracts so that we pay for better outcomes, particularly for deprived children.”
To read the full debate go to:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-09-12/debates/1709132000001/AccessToNHSDentists
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