NHS Dentistry: South-west

Sarah Gibson Excerpts
Tuesday 12th November 2024

(1 week, 5 days ago)

Westminster Hall
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Richard Foord Portrait Richard Foord
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I agree that emergency care should not suddenly become the routine. It is there for the most critical cases, but we have not seen that, given the drying up of NHS dentistry provision in our towns and villages.

Sarah Gibson Portrait Sarah Gibson (Chippenham) (LD)
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Does my hon. Friend not agree that part of the problem is that we are only talking about emergencies? The Secretary of State, in his first week in the job, talked about working hard to look at preventive medicine. That should apply to dentistry as well. Does my hon. Friend not agree that we need to look at a serious timeline for reviewing the dental contract? We cannot only talk about emergencies all the time.

Richard Foord Portrait Richard Foord
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My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Prevention is clearly cheaper than dealing with the problems down the line. There is no better example than offering check-ups for children’s dentistry.