Is filling the dental gap beyond the city’s control?

It’s reassuring to hear that Portsmouth city councillors have taken up the cudgels on behalf of residents left without a dentist to look after their teeth, or facing that possibility. An estimated 20,000 patients were left in that unfortunate position last year when Swiss company Colosseum Dental closed its three Portsmouth surgeries without warning in July.

Politicians and health officials have now severely criticised NHS England after it failed to confirm whether the so-called ‘deprived’ Paulsgrove and Portsea areas would be prioritised when providing new city dental services.

The NHS has previously said it would seek to provide one new practice in the north of the city and one in the south.

The health service has an obligation to provide medical and dental care to the entire population of the UK.

But, as we know, its services are under enormous pressures from a growing and ageing population, so resources are increasingly stretched.

In addition, while Britain desperately needs more GPs there is also a national shortage of dentists.

So while it is comforting that members of the city’s health board suggested seeing what legal powers they may have to ensure sufficient dental provision for the whole of the city, they may find the matter is beyond their control.

Planning health services to meet national needs is the job of central government.

It has a duty to look at population projections and ensure that adequate numbers of dentists (and doctors) are trained and recruited annually to keep the population healthy. That is why we pay our taxes. Could it be that the depletion of our dental health services has been allowed to continue — with private companies filling the gaps — while Britain has spent the past three years debating our exit from the EU?