Government Failing to Deliver on NHS Dentistry

12.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 13th Oct 2009

Colin Breed, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for South East Cornwall has today spoken out over the lack of an NHS dentist in Saltash. Over the summer, the last dentist offering NHS treatment wrote to his patients saying he could no longer afford to treat non-private patients. The decision leaves Cornwall's sixth largest town without free dental care, and forces patients to choose between going private or going to the nearest NHS dentists in Plymouth, Torpoint or Launceston.

In Departmental Questions, Colin Breed MP asked:

"During the Summer Recess another NHS dentist left the NHS and went private in my constituency. NHS dentistry is just getting worse year by year in Cornwall generally. When is the Government going to do something about it?"

In reply, the Minister of State, Ann Keen MP said:

"NHS dentistry provision has improved in the past few months in most areas of the country. PCTs are given the priority to secure access to such provision for all who seek it. All 10 SHAs have now set themselves the aim of achieving that by March 2011 at the very latest."

Commenting afterwards Colin Breed MP said:

"The Minister's answer bears no relation to reality in Cornwall. The Government is not here to improve most areas of the country; they are here to improve all of it. That dentists are leaving the NHS because of a lack of funding, even after twelve years of this Government, is very worrying indeed."

Mr Breed pressed further in a debate on NHS Dentistry a day later,

I am pleased that so many areas of this country have had their access to dentistry improved, but that improvement has not been the experience of people in Cornwall, particularly those in South-East Cornwall, who for more than the past 10 years have seen a declining service in NHS dentistry. More and more dentists have retired and not been replaced, and many have left to go into private practice. The declining and appalling service that we have experienced has been raised in this House on many occasions, and it has been brought to the attention of the primary care trust. Even in its most recent strategy, it failed to put this service in its top 10 priorities.

Some people who move to Cornwall, because it is such a nice place, suddenly discover that they cannot get an NHS dentist and decide, therefore, to hang on to what they have. As a result, some people travel back on a regular basis from Cornwall to north Devon, Reading, Bristol, Somerset and other places to see their dentist because they cannot access a dentist locally-the waiting lists prevent their doing so. That is not to say that we have not been given anything recently. Some emergency dental services have been provided-someone who is in dire pain and dire need might get in, within 24 or 48 hours, to receive some emergency services-but that is not good enough for people who want a proper NHS service. I am also pleased about the new dental school at the Peninsula medical school. I hope that-I think that there have been indications about this in the past-the fact that new dentists are being trained there might encourage them to stay after their training and, thus, build up the dentist population in Cornwall. I hope that that will happen through the NHS-if there is a compulsion for them to do NHS work when they have finished training, that might assist. However, there is no guarantee that they will remain NHS dentists or that they will remain in the area.

It was no surprise that during the summer the last NHS dentist in Saltash in my constituency, which is the sixth largest town in Cornwall, left the NHS and went private. I just want to read part of a letter sent to me by the dentist, to whom I wrote asking for an explanation, which sums up precisely what so many have said today: "I have worked as an NHS dentist for 20 years, and had always imagined I would carry on working for the NHS for my whole working life. I would consider myself a caring professional, and I hope many of my patients would back me up in this statement. I had warned the PCT that I may have to go private if they could not help, unfortunately I think they may have wanted to rely on my better nature not to change at all."

The dentist continues by saying that at a meeting with the PCT's commissioning and performance manager in June, he asked if it was possible to have a child only [0 to 18 years] NHS contract and they declined. I also asked the PCT for an NHS contract to continue seeing those adults who were exempt from NHS payment charges [those receiving state benefits] and they declined this also. The targets that the PCT were asking us to achieve were unrealistic and we also want to spend more time with each patient, discussing prevention of oral problems and how to look after one's mouth. I thought long and hard…but…I had…to leave"."

Unfortunately, that has been the experience of far too many dentists in Cornwall, particularly those in South-East Cornwall. The Minister of State, Department of Health, the right hon. and learned Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. O'Brien), is not in his place, but he was suggesting that he might visit. I would welcome the visit to Cornwall of any health Minister-they could meet me or any of my colleagues-so that we can hunt down greater access to dentists. Greater access is simply not true down in Cornwall, and it has not been for years. It is about time equality of access was actually addressed.