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Dental Healthcare: East Anglia
11 December 2024
Lead MP
Jerome Mayhew
Broadland and Fakenham
Con
Responding Minister
Stephen Kinnock
Tags
NHSEmployment
Word Count: 4396
Other Contributors: 9
At a Glance
Jerome Mayhew raised concerns about dental healthcare: east anglia in Westminster Hall. A government minister responded.
Key Requests to Government:
I ask the Government to confirm whether additional dental training places will be made available by the Office for Students in 2025 and if there will be a regional allocation specifically for East Anglia. I also request that the Minister advocate to HM Treasury regarding the negative impact of national insurance contributions on struggling NHS practices.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Lead Contributor
I am concerned about the significant problem of access to NHS dentists in East Anglia, where Norfolk is described as a 'Sahara of dental deserts'. The ratio of NHS dentists per 100,000 population has dropped from 39 to 36, while the national average increased to 53. There are only 17 full-time equivalent NHS dentists per 100,000 population in East Anglia, and the amount of money spent on dental treatment by the NHS is £39 per mouth compared to a national average of £66. Additionally, there were over 1,000 people presenting at NHS A&E with significant dental problems last year.
Adrian Ramsay
Green
Waveney Valley
Adrian Ramsay welcomed the funding for a dentistry school at UEA but stressed the need for incentives and contract reform to retain dentists in NHS practices, and asked for timelines on reviewing the dental contract. The Minister is asked to set out a timescale for the Government's work on reforming the dental contract.
Alice Macdonald
Lab Co-op
Norwich North
Alice Macdonald welcomed support from all parties for a new dental school in Norwich and mentioned £1.5 million announced by the Greater Norwich Growth Board last week to support the bid.
Charlotte Cane
Lib Dem
Ely and East Cambridgeshire
Urges immediate action for urgent cases such as constituents with heart conditions who need an NHS dentist but cannot find one in their area.
Jessica Asato
Lab
Lowestoft
Jessica Asato highlighted that constituents have resorted to pulling out their own teeth due to a lack of NHS dentists accepting new patients in her constituency, and urged for urgent action.
Jim Shannon
DUP
Strangford
Jim Shannon suggested that dental care should start in primary school, as it was when he attended. He questioned if the hon. Member agrees with this approach.
Pam Cox
Lab
Colchester
Pam Cox invited collaboration between the University of Essex, which offers oral science degrees, and the University of East Anglia, suggesting that it could be beneficial for dental education in the region.
Peter Prinsley
Lab
Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket
Peter Prinsley stressed the absolute priority of sorting out emergency dentistry to prevent children from being admitted to hospital for dental emergencies.
Steffan Aquarone
Lib Dem
North Norfolk
Steffan Aquarone congratulated his constituency neighbour on securing the debate and questioned whether the issue in East Anglia is due to a disproportionate failure under the previous Government's dental recovery plan.
Terry Jermy
Lab
South West Norfolk
Terry Jermy agreed with cross-party working but warned about the difficulty of finding solutions due to years of failure leading to ongoing dental issues as children grow older.
Government Response
Stephen Kinnock
Government Response
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I thank the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew) for securing this vital debate on dental healthcare provision in East Anglia, and I thank hon. Members on both sides of the House for their important interventions. The debate follows hot on the heels of a debate on 3 September that my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich South (Clive Lewis) led on healthcare provision in the east of England. We know that huge swathes of the region are dental deserts, facing great pressures from challenges in the recruitment and retention of dentists, leaving patients struggling to access NHS dental treatments they need. Norfolk and Waveney integrated care board had 31.5 dentists per 100,000 of the population in 2023-24, which is the lowest number in England. The independent Office for Students (OfS) has statutory responsibility for allocating funded training places to dental schools and cannot make specific commitments about allocating additional training places for future years. However, if the University of East Anglia meets the requirements, it would be considered for Government-funded dental training places. NHS dentistry was left in a poor state by the previous government; only 40% of adults were seen by an NHS dentist in the 24 months to June this year, down from almost 50% before the pandemic. The National Audit Office's investigation of the previous Government's dental recovery plan showed that it did not go far enough. We are working on the largest ever national conversation to inform our 10-year plan to reform the NHS and have launched the golden hello scheme offering dentists £20,000 to work in underserved areas for three years, with posts being filled as we speak. Our manifesto pledged 700,000 more urgent dental appointments targeted at the areas that need them most, and we continue to meet the British Dental Association and other representatives of the dental sector to discuss how best to deliver our shared ambition to improve access for NHS dental patients. We are also working on introducing legislation to give the General Dental Council powers to provisionally register overseas qualified dentists to address workforce challenges.
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About Westminster Hall Debates
Westminster Hall debates are a chance for MPs to raise important issues affecting their constituents and get a response from a government minister. Unlike Prime Minister's Questions, these debates are more in-depth and collaborative. The MP who secured the debate speaks first, other MPs can contribute, and a minister responds with the government's position.