Dental Patient Protest Group Invited To Parliament’s Round Table
- Details
- Published: Tuesday, 06 June 2023 13:49
- Written by Guy Tuggle
- Hits: 1646
Toothless In England, the dental patient protest and lobbying group, is to present its views on the NHS dental access crisis to a ‘Roundtable’ meeting of Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee on Wednesday 7th June.
The Select Committee Inquiry, set up to examine the crisis and explore possible solutions including contract reforms to address recruitment and retention, was established following calls from MPs across the country alarmed at the volume of complaints from their constituents.
Many MPs have openly stated that correspondence about the scarcity of NHS dental practices and emergency care is the number one topic in their mailbags.
Thus far, the Committee has heard from the great and the good of the dental profession’s many bodies including the BDA, the GDC and the CDO. The one voice that has been absent from the table is that of the long-suffering taxpayer and would-be patient.
Following its submission to the Committee when the Inquiry was first announced, Toothless in England was bitterly disappointed to be told that because of constraints on time and numbers it was not possible to invite everyone who had submitted a paper and that it would not be called.
Spokesperson for Toothless in England Dan Ross, in an article published in Big Issue North (8-14th May) said “we are not surprised at our exclusion as those being questioned are part of a closed shop.
If they want the select committee to have any integrity, they should be speaking to precisely the people on the frontline, which is campaigners and patients.
By freezing these people out then they are only going to get the answers that they are expecting to get. The problems won’t go away by asking the wrong questions of the wrong people” Mr Ross added.
The Committee’s U-turn and subsequent extension of an invitation to the campaigners makes for a robust and potentially high voltage discussion which GDPUK looks forward to reviewing.
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report