Dental Healthcare: East Anglia

Opened the debate

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.

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.