West Country MPs Pile On The Pressure
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- Published: Friday, 28 January 2022 17:51
- Written by Guy Tuggle
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As an increasing number of MPs are receiving critical correspondence from frustrated constituents unable to access NHS dental care.
In a week when the profession has punched above its weight in media exposure, on Monday 24th January Bristol Northwest MP Darren Jones (LAB) secured the day’s Adjournment Debate which he used to plead for NHS dental reform. (Adjournment debates are an opportunity for backbench MPs to bring a cause to the Commons for debate, with the relevant government minister in attendance.)
Jones opened the debate describing the plight of three constituents who can’t find an NHS dentist to treat them. One had called twenty-five practices, another was driving to Gloucester for NHS access. Both had been impacted by the sudden closure of a local NHS practice in the Southmead area, a third patient had been left mid-way through a course of treatment which had been paid for before the practice closed and who could not find another NHS practice to complete it.
Karin Smyth, MP (LAB) for neighbouring Bristol South raised the cause of pregnant women who have free access to dental care but are unable to access it at a stage in life when their oral health risks being compromised.
Bath’s MP Wera Hobhouse (LIB/DEM) drew the House’s attention to a 42% drop in the number of children seen in 2021 compared to 2019 prompting Jones to highlight the spiralling number of children attending hospital for extractions because of a lack of preventative care, a point picked up on by Plymouth MP Luke Pollard (LAB/Co-op) who reported that in 2019-20 some 3,925 teeth were removed under anaesthesia from children’s mouths in Plymouth.
Several more MPs of all political persuasions enunciated their constituents’ woes. Conservative MP for Thornbury & Yate offered Jones his ‘full support’ whilst Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw (LAB) spoke of constituents being told they could only have a dental appointment if they paid to be seen privately. “They cannot afford to go private and they cannot get access, in pain, to emergency treatment. It is an absolute disgrace, and for the last eight years this Government have done nothing about it” said Bradshaw.
The number of dentists offering NHS appointments in the South-West had fallen by more than 200 since 2017-19 Darren Jones told the Commons, citing figures gleaned from local BBC programme ‘Spotlight’, whilst figures compiled by mydentist and published in its 2021 ‘Great British Oral Health Report’ revealed a disturbing link between dental attendance and proximity to a practice. “Those who had not had a dental appointment in the last 12 months were twice as likely than the national average to live over 30 miles away from their closest surgery. That seems to suggest that there is a correlation between someone’s proximity to an NHS dentist and the amount of time that has elapsed since their last appointment, adding geographical inequality to income inequality” said Jones.
Quoting figures from the BDA suggesting that 47% of survey respondents were considering reducing their NHS provision, Jones called on the government to act to make it easier for overseas dentists to work in the UK and emphasised that the broken dental contract needed urgent reform.
Overseas dentists from the Commonwealth, Old and New, would be able to work here “once the immigration Bill is through and the General Dental Council gets the slight change in legislation it needs to bring the dentists in. They will come here, because this is an attractive area to work in national health, privately and in research” Mole Valley MP and dentist Paul Beresford (CON) announced.
Replying to the debate, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Maria Caulfield, said dentistry “is an absolute priority” for the government before defaulting to the impact of covid on service delivery. Services were gradually being restored and “urgent care has been back at pre-pandemic levels since December 2020, so the backlog is in respect of routine services, whether fillings, caps, crowns or routine dental-hygiene work.”
The minister acknowledged that the service faced many obstacles and wanted to attract clinicians from overseas. She trailed additional fluoridisation of water schemes to benefit children and those in deprived areas plus an imminent ‘announcement’ later in the week (i.e. the extra £50M). There were, however, “no quick fix solutions” and until the contract was reformed many of the problems members had brought to the house would continue.
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