§ 15. Mr. Ben Chapman (Wirral, South)If he will make a statement on the availability of NHS dentistry. [26374]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Yvette Cooper)The Government are committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can have access to NHS dental treatment. To support that, NHS Direct is now advising people on how to find dentists willing to provide NHS treatment in their local area.
§ Mr. ChapmanDoes my hon. Friend agree that everyone has the right to be on the list of an NHS dentist? Does she also agree that the best way to improve dental health, not least in poorer areas, is to increase further the number of available dentists? What specific plans does she have to retain or to recruit more dentists who are willing to provide a high-quality NHS service, rather than do as they currently do—which is to spend an ever increasing amount of time on private practice?
§ Yvette CooperI assure my hon. Friend that we are committed to increasing access to NHS dentistry. The number of dentists working in the NHS is increasing, and primary dental services have been established in his area. Through the use of dental access centres as well, we are increasing access to NHS dentistry for people in low-income areas. My hon. Friend is right to suggest that inequality issues also need to be addressed.
§ Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome)Despite the assurances that we have been given over the years, is it not true that there are still huge gaps in NHS dentistry provision, not least in my county of Somerset where people still come to me because they cannot get an NHS dentist? Do we not best serve the interests of acute and long-term care by concentrating on primary care and making sure that we have the practitioners available in dentistry, optometry and general practice to provide universal and comprehensive primary care for our constituents?
§ Yvette CooperThe hon. Gentleman is right to suggest that catching dental problems at an early stage is far better than palliative work later, and that the position varies across the country. We need to improve access at an early stage. However, we would be in a considerably better position now if hundreds of dentists had not left the NHS in the early 1990s, when the Conservative Government changed their contracts. We are putting in place incentive payments and improving things so as to bring dentists back into the NHS—but we would not be in this situation if previous decisions had not been taken.