§ 9. Mr. Peter Pike (Burnley)What progress his Department is making with improving NHS dental service provision. [129956]
§ The Minister of State, Department of Health (Ms Rosie Winterton)The Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill will give new duties for primary care trusts to secure primary dental 714 services using the £1.2 billion currently held centrally. In the meantime, an NHS support team has started work with primary care trusts to overcome problems in areas where it is hardest to find an NHS dentist.
§ Mr. PikeMy hon. Friend will know that two additional NHS funded dentists' posts were announced for Burnley last month, but that is just one small step in dealing with a major serious problem in Burnley. Does she recognise that 20 per cent. of calls to NHS Direct in Lancashire are about dental health problems? Where are those people who are entitled to free dental treatment supposed to get the care that maintains their dental health, rather than emergency care, which they can get when it is absolutely essential?
§ Ms WintertonI am very much aware of the problems that my hon. Friend mentions. I think that the new support team has already been once to Burnley, but it will return there with an action plan to look at how the situation can be improved. There are short-term measures, but, as I say, in the longer term we have a comprehensive programme in place to ensure that local commissioning of dental services can take place and that the £1.2 billion can be used locally, rather than centrally.
§ Mr. John Baron (Billericay)The Minister will be aware from recent figures that 1.5 million fewer people are registered for NHS dental treatment than in 1998. Only last month, the British Dental Association said that
millions of people are unable to register with an NHS dentist.Last year, the Audit Commission stated that40 per cent. of dental practices do not accept children or adults for continuing care.The Prime Minister pledged in his 1999 party conference speech that everyone would be able to see an NHS dentist within two years. Four years later, it is obvious to everyone that that is not happening. I ask the Minister one question: why have the Government so disastrously failed to fulfil their promise to dental patients?
§ Ms WintertonOne of the problems that we face is clearing up the mess left by the previous Tory Government. Conservative spokesmen should know very well that the contract that they introduced, and the way in which they implemented it, led NHS dentists to walk away. We are putting that right. We recognise that there is a short-term problem and we are backing that up with proper resources, while in the longer term we have a comprehensive plan to provide proper primary care dental services, commissioned locally.
§ Diana Organ (Forest of Dean)Is the Minister aware that it is impossible for a new patient in the Forest of Dean to find an NHS dentist? That problem has been exacerbated recently by the fact that two very good NHS dentists have transferred to the private sector because they say that they cannot cope on their fee level. Is she aware that that is a particular problem for the disabled, the unemployed, children and people on low incomes? If we believe, as we do, that health care should 715 be free at the point of need and that we should build capacity in that NHS service, why are we not doing so in dentistry?
§ Ms WintertonIf my hon. Friend's constituents are facing problems with NHS dentists, she might like to consider whether emergency facilities and dental access services are available, and I certainly undertake to write to her about that. She is right to suggest that, of course, we want a proper system of dental care provision in the longer term. One of the other problems that we have to consider is the number of dentists who are being trained. We have undertaken a dental work force review, so that, in the longer term, working with the professions and the British Dental Association, we can ensure that we improve the number of dentists who come forward in the first place.