NHS Dentists: South-West England

Richard Foord Excerpts

Wednesday 24th May 2023 Westminster Hall

[Richard Foord (Tiverton and Honiton) (LD)]

I am grateful to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Elliott, and to follow the hon. Member for South Dorset (Richard Drax), who made some excellent points that get to the heart of why the Government are failing us on NHS dentistry. I will follow him by using some examples and giving a voice to some of the constituents in my part of Devon who have written to me to appeal for help.

Chrissy Evans from Seaton wrote:

“I don’t understand why there has been no effort to address the problem of thousands of British children without free access to a dentist…We have tried all the dentists in our area and none are taking on new patients unless they are private.”

John Mason from Branscombe received an email advising him that his check-up was booked, only to be telephoned by the practice in Sidmouth a few weeks later. He wrote:

“I had been an NHS patient in Sidmouth for many years. I was telephoned by the practice”,

which told him that his options were to become a private patient, to try to find another dentist, or to call NHS Devon if he needed emergency treatment.

A woman from Honiton, who I do not have permission to name, has had dental issues since 2011. She wrote to me:

“I have been trying to sort this since 2011, I believe now I am considered too old to matter. I cannot eat, I don’t wish to be seen trying. I hide my face when possible. I don’t smile, I avoid friends and family, my speech is affected, this has ruined my life for the past 12 years and consumes my every thought.”

Finally, Edward Roberts from Tiverton puts it very plainly:

“The situation which prevails is unacceptable but no one in Government seems to be concerned about it.”

People are living in pain. The examples I have just given are a small snapshot of the heart-rending emails that I have received about people’s dental misery. As we have heard already, many in the west country do not have access to an NHS dentist. A survey by the British Dental Association in March laid bare the challenges we face. It found that across the south-west, nearly three in five dentists reported having reduced their NHS commitment by an average of 30%, but a staggering 75% also reported their intention to further reduce the amount of NHS work they undertake this year.

Why is this happening? Because the NHS work that dentists take on simply does not pay enough to be viable. Many NHS dentists are simply overwhelmed by the soaring costs of their work and, on this trajectory, the problem is only going to get worse. The BDA reports that 49% of south-west dentists say that they are likely to go fully private, with 41% likely to change career or seek early retirement. Fifteen per cent say that they will move abroad. Unless the Government take swift action now to start to address the situation, we could see NHS dentistry effectively disappear within a decade.

It is pretty infuriating to see the Government’s lack of recognition of the issue. Ministers at the Dispatch Box should not hide behind the outrageous claim, which I and others will have heard, that the Government have reformed the NHS contract. They have not. In July 2022, they simply paid dentists for a few more units of dental activity—for example, a dentist who is treating a mouth full of teeth that need repair will get paid the same as somebody who is treating a mouth that needs three teeth worked on. Instead, the Government should engage constructively with dentists and overhaul the NHS contract to compensate sufficiently for dental work carried out on the people who need it. Unless those steps are taken, people will continue to suffer in pain. Dentistry should not be only for those fortunate enough to win the postcode lottery.

I hope to hear from the Minister some unequivocal plans to reform the NHS dental contract, and I am curious to know what steps the Government will take to address the crumbling state of NHS dental services—I hope that they will include some measures that my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I have been calling for over many years. Above all else, I want some honesty from this Conservative Government: either reform the NHS dental contract properly, or simply admit that an NHS dental service for our constituents in the west country is a thing of the past that this Government are not willing to prioritise.