NHS Dental Contract Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock
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NHS Dental Contract
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts(2 years ago)
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Lord Markham (Con)
I am aware of some of the dental deserts. Some 700 urgent care centres have been set up to try to cater for such cases, and they have seen 4 million people. In total, there were about 26 million treatments last year. About 75% of patients who wanted to get an appointment were able to. Clearly, that leaves 25% who were not. We need to work further on that, including in Cornwall.
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)
My Lords, the Minister’s replies have been exceptionally helpful. I wonder whether he and the Government could consider what might be done to get non-practising dentists back into practice.
Lord Markham (Con)
It is a good question. I will take the noble Lord’s compliment of being exceptionally helpful; I hope I can give another helpful answer. We need to look at everything we can do to attract dentists. The contract is fundamental to that, because, unless it is attractive for them financially, it will not help.