Oral Answers to Questions

Rachael Maskell Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

7. What recent steps she has taken to increase capacity in NHS dental care.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

18. What progress she has made on introducing a dentistry recovery plan.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Dame Andrea Leadsom)]

I am determined to ensure that everybody who needs NHS dental care can receive it. We have already implemented a package of reforms to improve access and provide fairer remuneration for dentists. That has had an effect, with 1.7 million more adults being seen, 800,000 more children being seen and a 23% increase in NHS activity in the past year. We know we need to do much more, and our dentistry recovery plan will be published shortly, setting out a big package of change.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dame Andrea Leadsom]

As my hon. Friend will know, this is a local matter, and it is for his ICB to determine whether it wishes to support the excellent pilot proposal for overseas dental students in Clacton. At the same time, it needs to ensure that its actions are compliant with current legislation and within the delegation agreement with NHS England. I have just written to my hon. Friend about that, and my letter should address his concerns, but of course I would be happy to see him again if he has any further questions.

[Rachael Maskell]

We were promised “before the summer”, we were promised “after the summer”, we were promised “before Christmas”, we were promised “soon” and now we have been promised “shortly”. The reality is that Labour has a plan and the Government have not. In York, we cannot get an NHS dentist either. Blossom Family Dental Care is just handing back its contract. My constituents have nowhere to go. What is the Minister going to do to ensure that my constituents can access NHS dentistry?

[Dame Andrea Leadsom]

As I said to the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran), I absolutely understand the challenge for some people. The situation has improved over the last year. Since the covid pandemic, where almost every dentist had to stop working altogether, we have not seen the recovery we want. We are putting in plans—not a paper ambition like the one Labour has put forward, but significant reforms that will enable many more people to be seen by NHS dentists. I say gently to the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) that a recent Health Service Journal article states that Humber and North Yorkshire ICB

“have indicated in board papers that dentistry funding will be squeezed to help them balance their books.”

I encourage her to talk to her ICB about that too.