Covid-19: Dental Services

Nick Fletcher Excerpts

Thursday 14th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Nick Fletcher (Don Valley) (Con) [V]]

I feel compelled to speak in this debate following my meeting with several dentists from Don Valley last week. I want to start by commending the work of NHS England and the British Dental Association in reaching a compromise in July, which saw the abatement figure agreed at 16.75% for the period when dental practices were instructed to close. At the time, the British Dental Association stated that this was a “fair number”. However, it is my understanding that the abatement has not yet been collected from the practices. Can the Minister provide greater clarity to practices and state when the abatement will be expected to be paid?

As Members will know, dentists are currently being expected to hit 45% of pre-pandemic activity, at a time when people are being told to stay at home, and triage activity is no longer being included in activity measures. If activity falls below 36%, practices will have to return the majority of the NHS funding they receive in the first three months of this year. That policy will directly put NHS dental practices at risk of closure, as the clawback is potentially disproportionate. With the country now in full lockdown, patients’ reluctance to leave home is leading to many missed and cancelled appointments, so for many practices this demand is impossible. In fact, figures from NHS England show that the demand for dental practices to reach 45% of pre-pandemic activity is already failing.

Penalising dental practices at this difficult time will not help reduce the backlog. The Government have continually adopted a pragmatic approach throughout this pandemic. Would it not therefore be reasonable to abandon the activity target of 45% while the country remains in full lockdown, and include triage as part of the activity measures? Increased targets should be delayed until 1 April, when there has been more vaccine roll-out and the virus is under better control. Again, I would appreciate a comment on this from the Minister.

I would like to finish by stating something I saw scrawled on a wall in one of our many public houses: “A man with toothache thinks everyone’s happy whose teeth are sound”. We would be wise to remember this, as we could all be in a very sad state if we lost our dentists.