Dental Services: East of England

Matt Warman Excerpts

Tuesday 16th May 2023 Westminster Hall

[Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Mr Bacon) on securing the debate. Although my constituents use the facilities of the east of England, I welcome his hospitality in the debate as well. This is a shared issue, especially for many in the southern part of my constituency.

I wanted to speak today because, as we have heard from many other hon. Members, this is not just a top issue, but the top issue, in the postbag and particularly on social media. We all feel the immense frustration of our constituents on this important issue. In Lincolnshire, nearly a quarter of five-year-olds are suspected to have tooth decay. Last year, a dozen Boston children had teeth removed. The problems we have heard about in the east of England are present in my part of the world too, and the burden of that partly falls on the services provided in the east of England, which is why it is relevant for me to speak today. These are real problems.

I asked my office to do what I called a secret shopping exercise because, like my hon. Friend the Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous), I did not trust the data NHS England had provided. On that secret shopping exercise, we see that just a single NHS practice is offering access to new patients and, even then, only to children. There are huge problems with local provision. When I spoke to the ICB, which has recently taken on the responsibility, it said that there are particularly acute issues in coastal and rural areas and, as we have heard, that there are no silver bullets. However, it raised a few issues, which I will use to augment previous speakers’ excellent contributions.

First, there is the enormous backlog in the General Dental Council exams. I gather that 1,700 people are seeking to take the part 1 exam and that the GDC website does not even say when it plans to put another one on. When it does, it is likely to put just 150 people through it. I know that the GDC is an independent body, but will the Minister do all he can—I know he is already doing so—to encourage the GDC to pull its finger out?

Secondly, on the issue of having a dental school in the east of England, there is a medical school in Lincoln; if it were to train dentists, that would benefit the broader area. As we have heard, there is a clear need for many more dentists to be trained across the country, so perhaps we could do something for East Anglia and see benefits for the whole region from having Lincoln-trained dentists.

Thirdly, the issue of fluoridation affects my constituents as well. I do not think anyone, except those on the outer edges of the internet, could possibly argue against fluoridation, and we should encourage it as quickly as possible. On the outer edges of the internet, I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Broadland (Jerome Mayhew).

[Jerome Mayhew]

I try not to inhabit that area. Does my hon. Friend not think that it is surprising that only 10% of the country’s drinking water is fluoridated?

[Matt Warman]

It is a surprising number. As I am sure my hon. Friend knows, the water companies have raised issues that are legitimate to some extent, but the overall public good from increasing that number is obvious and would pay real dividends relatively quickly. It would be public money well spent.

[Peter Aldous]

In this place, fluoridation is recognised, but the feedback I get from water companies is that conspiracy theories on the internet cause them concern. Does my hon. Friend agree that there is a need for the Government to lead a public awareness campaign on the benefits of fluoridation to dispel these urban myths?

[Matt Warman]

I was the Minister responsible for 5G during covid, and we all remember that, apparently, 5G caused covid—I should be very clear that it did not. However, there is a clear dilemma for the Government as to how much they engage with genuinely fringe conspiracy theories and risk giving them a degree of salience and credibility that they simply do not deserve. I encourage the Minister and his colleagues in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs simply to get on with it and engage, where necessary, with people who are genuinely worried. However, we sometimes have to acknowledge that the extremities of the internet are not a place where rational debate can always be had, be it on 5G and covid or on fluoridation and tooth decay.

I will make two other points before I end my jaunt to the east of the England. The first is that I know the Minister is looking—as we do with GPs and the NHS more broadly—at what work can be done by people who are not fully qualified dentists to help the nation’s oral health. Along with the expansion of people who have trained abroad, I think that would be welcome and could make a difference, but it is not a silver bullet either.

My final point is that, although my secret shopping exercise was valuable and instructive, it is a huge sign of failure, because the data about which dentists are accepting patients should be freely and easily available so that constituents can easily see which practices are offering help. Given the structure of NHS dentistry, we will always have some dentists with open lists and some with closed lists, even in a healthy system. Easy access to that information would benefit our constituents and NHS England.

I know that the Secretary of State is a huge fan of data and is making such information as open and as easily available as possible, and I hope it can form part of the eagerly anticipated dentistry plan, which is coming “soon”—I think that is the current Government parlance. In a world where the autumn runs into February, I would hope that “soon” is well before the summer. I know it will make a difference in the medium term, but the biggest frustration for all our constituents is the fact that there is no silver bullet.

I hope the dentistry plan includes, for instance, the experimental ways of employing dentists that some trusts are using up and down the country, because that will provide some of the interim measures that I hope will come before the opening of the three dental schools that we have secured in this debate alone. Those will make a huge difference, but it takes time to train dentists, and constituents need solutions as quickly as possible. In pursuing that, we will save people from turning up at A&Es and emergency dental appointments, which will come as a consequence of failing to deliver the basic services I know the Minister is keen to offer as quickly as possible.