The government has said it must do more to ensure that everyone in the UK can access an NHS dentist.
This follows a Health and Social Care Committee report in which ministers were called on to end a ‘crisis of access’ that had led to high levels of pain and distress.
The government accepted the majority of the committee recommendations, including:
- The ambition [for everyone who needs an NHS dentist to be able to access one] must ensure access within a reasonable timeframe and a reasonable distance. The government must set out how they intend to realise this ambition and what the timeline will be for delivery. It is vital that this ambition is the central tenet of the government’s forthcoming dental recovery plan. Once the plan has been published, we will revisit the recommendations in this report to assess it against this criteria
- The government and NHS England should roll-out a patient information campaign with the aim of improving awareness of how NHS dentistry will work and ensure the public are better informed about what they are entitled to
- Practices should abide by NICE recall guidelines of up to two years for most adult patients, recognising the need for more regular recall for some, but people should not automatically be removed from dentists’ registers of NHS patients without good reason. This should be monitored by NHS England to ensure it is being carried out.
Pain and distress
Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee Steve Brine MP said: ‘We welcome the government’s admission that it needs to do more to make sure that everyone can access an NHS dentist and we’re pleased to see the new Secretary of State’s commitment to “make real improvements”. Ending the pain and distress people suffer because they’re denied access to a dentist must be a top priority.
‘However, we called for fundamental reform to the contract that pays dentists for NHS work so it’s disappointing that the government hasn’t fully accepted this recommendation and we’re concerned steps taken will still not go far enough.
‘The Secretary of State says the government has “begun laying the foundations of change”. Yet there is still no date for the publication of the dental recovery plan to this committee’s continued frustration. We’ll be pressing her on this point when she appears before us this afternoon.’
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