News story
4th July 2005
Local MP Speaks Out Over NHS Dentists Crisis
As another Northavon dental surgery decides to leave the NHS, local MP
Steve Webb has spoken out in the House of Commons about the crisis in
NHS dentistry. The MP was speaking at the start of a Liberal Democrat
initiated debate designed to highlight the continuing problems faced by
many people in registering with an NHS dentist.
He began by highlighting the fact that more than one child in three and
one adult in two were not registered with an NHS dentist, and gave
examples of cases from around the country where there had been "queues
round the block" on the rare occasions where a dentist decided to take
on new NHS patients.
The Lib Dem Health Spokesman pointed out that if people are not
registered with a dentist it will often mean that preventative work does
not get done and that dental problems can therefore become much more
serious before they are picked up. He criticised the Government's
failure to ensure that more dentists are trained and said that the
Government needed to work with the dental profession to ensure that more
dentists were doing more NHS work.
In response, the Government said that they had put in place a range of
measures to tackle the problem, including expanding places at dental
schools and hiring dentists from countries such as Poland to fill the
gaps.
Speaking after the debate, Steve Webb said:
"The Government has been remarkably complacent about the crisis in
dentistry. Far too many people find it impossible to register with an
NHS dentist and suffer poor dental health as a result. This problem has
been getting worse over many years and we are now suffering from a lack
of action by successive governments.
"Many dentists want to be part of the NHS but are finding they simply
cannot make it work. Urgent action is needed to ensure that more
dentists are trained and that the ability to register with a convenient
NHS dentist is seen as a right rather than a privilege".
Notes to editors:
Last month the Bankside Dental Practice in Thornbury contacted its
patients to report that it would be moving into the private sector.
Click here to read Steve Webb's debate on dentistry in the Commons
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