Dire lack of access to NHS dentistry
By Holly LynchMP (Labour, Halifax)
For years now, one of the biggest challenges local people have faced is getting access to an NHS dentist. My team and I have worked our socks off time and time again, trying to find an NHS dentist able to register individuals and families when they need help, while campaigning for the broken dental system to be fixed in Parliament.
I have challenged the government in the House of Commons, presented a petition signed by hundreds of people to Parliament and given evidence at scrutiny panels about the scale of the problem.
I have also made repeated representations to the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) on behalf of constituents who have been left without access to an NHS dentist.
The ICB recognises that this is one of its biggest issues to tackle locally and has identified several priorities for action. However the government only recently gave it additional responsibilities for dentistry, and without transforming the national issues, we must ensure that the ICB is not being set up to fail.
We know that this isn’t just a Halifax problem. This is a national crisis in NHS dentistry. You may have seen the scenes in Bristol recently where hundreds of people were queuing in the cold to get access to an NHS dentist.
Healthwatch England has reported horror stories of people forced to pull their own teeth out, with one in ten Brits claiming to have attempted their own dental work.
One local parent had been making weekly phone calls to all Calderdale dentists in an attempt to make appointments for her children. It took months and hours, but she persevered because her three-year-old daughter had never even visited a dentist and her four other children have been without a check-up in five years.
One constituent had to wait five years just for braces. When they finally got their braces, the orthodontist informed them that they would need four teeth taken out. They could not find a dentist, but were told if they didn’t find one, they wouldn’t be able to keep their braces on.
The Labour Party has been urging the government to get a grip of the immediate crisis and tabled a motion in Parliament in January. The shadow health secretary announced plans for 700,000 additional urgent appointments a year, incentive schemes for new dentists in areas most at need, and a targeted supervised toothbrushing scheme for three to five year-olds to promote good oral health. He added that the dental contract should be reformed to rebuild the service in the long run.
Last April the government promised a recovery plan and have finally published it, ten months later. But these measures alone will not be sufficient to fix NHS dentistry for the long term.
Dentists are crying out for reform of the dentist contract so we can recruit and retain the NHS dentist we need. I know that my colleague Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary has said that he would act immediately to agree a process for contract renegotiation.
I desperately hope that we have the opportunity to rescue NHS dentistry, and get patients seen on time once again.