Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Access to NHS Dentistry

Tuesday 24 January 2023 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 3 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Government working to improve access to NHS dentistry
  • Initial reforms to the contract and new UDA bands introduced
  • Extra 50 million invested in the last quarter of last year

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Gill Furniss Lab Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough
NHS
Context

The MP is concerned about recent reports indicating inadequate access to NHS dental services. She mentions constituent feedback highlighting difficulties in accessing dental care.

Question

What recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of access to NHS dentistry? I was contacted recently by my constituent Helen, who said: 'I don't know what to do. I have phoned 25 dental practices today and been told the same thing each time: all we can do is put you on a 3 year waiting list.' What does the Minister say to Helen and the thousands who, like her, cannot access an NHS dentist?

Answer from Neil O'Brien

The Government are working to improve access. We have made initial reforms to the contract and created more unit of dental activity bands to better reflect the fair cost of work and to incentivise NHS work. We introduced a new minimum UDA value to help sustain practices where they are low, and we allowed dentists to deliver 110% of their UDAs for the first time to deliver more activity. Those are just the first steps; we are planning wider reforms.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister did not provide a specific assessment or timeframe for addressing the accessibility issue raised by constituents like Helen.

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Q2 Peter Aldous Con
NHS
Context

The House passed a motion on October 20 highlighting the continuing crisis in NHS dentistry and called for a report from the Government. The deadline has now elapsed.

Question

On 20 October, the House passed a motion highlighting the continuing crisis in NHS dentistry and calling on the Government to report to the House in three months' time on their progress in addressing this crisis. That time has now elapsed. I am grateful to the Minister for that update, but can he confirm that the Government will be producing a comprehensive strategy for the future of NHS dentistry, and can he inform the House when it will be published?

Answer from Neil O'Brien

It was very useful to meet my hon. Friend the other day, who is a great expert on this issue. As he knows, we are working at pace on our plans for dentistry. We have improved incentives for NHS work and are working on workforce issues to make it easier for dentists to come to the UK. We laid draft secondary legislation in October to help the General Dental Council with that. We are also planning a centre for dental development in Ipswich and elsewhere in the east of England.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister did not confirm the production or publication date of a comprehensive strategy, despite acknowledging ongoing work on the issue.

How: Working At Pace, Draft Secondary Legislation

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Q3 Gill Furniss Lab Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough
NHS
Context

The MP received a constituent letter describing difficulty in accessing dental care. The current situation is not satisfactory, according to the Minister.

Question

I was contacted recently by my constituent Helen, who said: 'I don't know what to do. I have phoned 25 dental practices today and been told the same thing each time: all we can do is put you on a 3 year waiting list.' What does the Minister say to Helen and the thousands who, like her, cannot access an NHS dentist? When will he get a grip on this crisis?

Answer from Neil O'Brien

We are the first to say that the current situation is not satisfactory. We invested an extra £50 million in the last quarter of last year, and we are working at pace. Let us be clear: dentistry has not been right since Labour's 2006 contract, and until we fix the fundamentals of that and the problems set up by the Opposition, we will not tackle the underlying problem.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister did not provide a direct response to Helen's situation or specify when actions would be taken to address the crisis.

How: Working At Pace, Fixing Fundamentals

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