Smart challenges Health Minister over disappearance of NHS dentists

Hazel Grove constituency parliamentary candidate Lisa Smart has written to Health Minister Steve Barclay after the last dentist providing NHS services in Romiley wrote to patients to let them know they were ending NHS work.

Over 3,000 dentists in England have stopped offering NHS care in England over the last three years, and the number of qualified dentists from the EU coming to the UK has halved, worsening the crisis. 

Lisa said: “The Government’s plans to address this are to require newly qualified dentists to do a guaranteed amount of NHS work. However, if there are no surgeries in the area doing that, it seems likely to drive those dentists to work elsewhere, making the situation worse, not better.

“Tooth decay is consistently the number one reason for hospital admissions among children. We need to reform the NHS contract; right now it is a barrier to dentists working for the NHS when it should be an incentive.

“Everyone should be able to access an NHS dentist if they need one. Instead, people across our area are faced with a stark choice between expensive private care and no care at all. This has to change.”