Dental Care: Durham

Peter Gibson Excerpts

Wednesday 24th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mary Kelly Foy (City of Durham) (Lab)]

Vast areas of our country are increasingly described as “dental deserts”, places where not a single dental practice is accepting new NHS patients, and County Durham is one such place. We in Durham have witnessed dental services decay at an alarming rate. In my constituency today, there will be children sat in classrooms struggling to concentrate because of something as preventable as toothache. So it is hardly surprising that tooth decay is now the leading reason for children being admitted to accident and emergency in our country.

This scandal is not unique to Durham or the north-east; it is a problem everywhere. In 2023, dentistry is available on the NHS on paper but not in practice. The British Dental Association has described NHS dentistry as entering its final act. The horrifying experiences of my constituents, which I will outline, will certainly strengthen that claim, but before I turn to my constituents, let me state a chilling fact: Britain has poorer oral health than any other developed economy.

[Peter Gibson (Darlington) (Con)]

The hon. Lady raises an important point about children’s dentistry. Does she agree that prevention is better than cure? Would she welcome a return to dentistry in schools?

[Mary Kelly Foy]

Of course, prevention is better than cure, and that is one of the reasons why so many children have to go to A&E. If problems were identified and prevented in young children, there would not be the cost implication for services further down the line. In an ideal world, we would have dentists in schools.

As I said, Britain has the poorest oral healthcare among developed countries. Can the Minister honestly say that we have genuine preventive oral healthcare in our country? Over the past 13 years, dentistry has become unaffordable and unavailable for many of my constituents. Nearly 400 have contacted me in dismay at their recent experiences. I thank them for their contributions and I hope the Minister can give them some reassurance today.

My constituents know that the problem is not with the dentists themselves. They know that dentists are trying their best for their patients. The problem lies at the Government’s door. In the time that I have, I can share only a portion of the pain and suffering that my constituents have had to endure. One moved to Durham over four and a half years ago but still cannot find an NHS dentist, despite being told after a kidney transplant that it was vital that they had regular dental check-ups to monitor their health. Now they have a broken tooth and simply cannot afford to fix it.

Another constituent told me how she had to borrow money to afford a private appointment. She is now 30 weeks pregnant and exempt from dental charges, but her exemption is worthless as there are no appointments available for her. A young girl in my constituency tripped over and shattered her teeth. Her family contacted me because they could not find a dentist to help her. Luckily, after I reported the case on social media, a local dentist was kind enough to help her out, but our health system should not be based on charity. Constituents have also contacted me about do-it-yourself dentistry. In case the Minister is unaware, that is when people fit their own fillings and extract their own teeth without anaesthetic or any professional training.

I have raised the alarming experience of my constituent Ray in the Chamber before, but I do so again because his case underlines why access to dentistry should be not a luxury, but an integral part of our health system. Ray was unable to find an NHS dental appointment, so, out of utter frustration, he decided to go private. Following his appointment, Ray was diagnosed with oral cancer, for which he is now receiving treatment. As there is a cost of living crisis, we have a duty to ask, what if Ray had not been able to pay for private treatment? What if the cancer had continued to go undetected? Frankly, Ray might not be here today. It is morally wrong that Ray was put in that position. No one in my constituency —or anywhere, for that matter—should be put in that position.

Why is this happening? My visit to a dental practice in Gilesgate this week provided some of the answers. The practice has just one dentist working two days a week seeing NHS patients, and it has 10,000 patients on its books. It does not take a genius to work out why my constituents cannot see a dentist. It is clear why dentists are closing their doors to NHS patients, and it is certainly not because of a lack of demand. The problem, which the BDA has identified, is that the unreformed NHS dental contract means that dentists are pushed into the private sector to keep their practices afloat financially. As one dentist said to me:

“Every day I’m providing some treatment for nothing or at a loss—working the best I can, caring for NHS patients the best I can within the dental contract.”

He also went on to say that the Government are clearly winding down NHS dentistry in the hope that the public will accuse dentists of being greedy.

The exodus of dentists is clear for all to see—except, it seems, the Government, who continue to deny there is a crisis in NHS dentistry.

--- Later in debate ---

[Peter Gibson]

I thank the Minister for his engagement with me on dentistry in my constituency, and I welcome the reforms that he is talking about, but as he has just mentioned UDAs, could he say something about the disparity of UDA rates across a region? That disparity means that a large practice can concentrate its efforts in areas with higher UDA rates rather than in areas with lower UDA rates.

[Neil O’Brien]

My hon. Friend is quite right. Some of those disparities, which can occur from one end of the street to the other, are extremely hard to justify, hence the introduction of the minimum UDA rate and why we are looking at going further. He is completely correct. Funnily enough, as well as coming to improving access to treatment, I was just about to respond to his earlier point about prevention and his rather brilliant idea about what more we could do in schools. We are, following the conversations we have had, actively considering that.

I thank the hon. Member for City of Durham for her important work in securing this important debate.