The Minister Doesn’t Know How Many NHS Dentists There Are
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- Published: Thursday, 09 February 2023 07:33
- Written by Guy Tuggle
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As the Government’s Health and Social Care Committee prepares to analyse the profession’s feedback to inform its enquiry into the access crisis, the public and the profession might expect, at the very least, that the Minister who answers for the department would know how many NHS dentists are working and the cost of NHS dentistry.
Both figures are basic service KPIs.
But on 2nd February, when the Shadow Secretary of State for Health & Social Care Wes Streeting asked these seemingly simple but intuitive questions, Neil O’Brien, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care had no answers at his fingertips.
Streeting questions asked ‘What was the total spend on NHS dentistry in England in each of the last five years?’ and ‘how many NHS dentists were there in England in each of the last five years?’
To both questions, the reply from Neil O’Brien was ‘The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available’.
The British Dental Association’s Eddie Crouch seized on the revelation and somewhat sarcastically has tweeted “Interesting that this isn’t known straight away. After all, @RishiSunak said NHS Dentistry had been given more funding”.
The profession, the BDA and GDPUK will be watching with eager interest for the answers to Streeting’s questions and the picture they paint of a service in crisis.
Interesting that this isn’t known straight away After all @RishiSunak said NHS Dentistry had been given more funding https://t.co/GMi2GADdwf
— Eddie Crouch (@EddieCrouch) February 3, 2023
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