§ 21. Mr. Redheadasked the Minister of Health what steps are taken by his Department to promote and encourage schemes whereby the dentists in any given area shall arrange between themselves that one of their number shall be available within the area, on rota, to give emergency dental treatment at week-ends and bank holidays.
§ Mr. PowellExperience indicates that the demand would not justify my Department seeking to arrange formal schemes for this purpose.
§ Mr. RedheadIf I send the Minister details of a case which recently came to my notice, in which a young man sought to obtain emergency dental treatment for his wife on a Saturday afternoon and succeeded only after hours of inquiry and seventeen abortive telephone calls in finding a dentist available to give the service and then had to take his wife by hired car a journey of six miles, will he look into the matter again and consider the suggestion contained in my Question?
§ Mr. PowellI will certainly look at it, but I know that where arrangements for this purpose have been made they have had to be discontinued owing to lack of demand.