The lack of access to dentistry is a major concern for the residents I represent in Thetford and those concerns are shared across wider West Norfolk. Not a surprise given that there are just 1.1 dentists for every 10,000 people in the Breckland District and the statistics for the Kings Lynn and West Norfolk Borough are not that much better at 1.6.
I hear on a regular basis about the challenges to access a dentist, how residents are having to travel significant distances just to find an appointment, or they’re having to borrow money for expensive treatment or I hear about how the pain is impacting their day to day life.
Norfolk is often called a ‘dentistry desert’ with residents too often left in pain and despair. A particular concern is the lack of access to dentistry for children and the sharp rise in the number of children presenting at hospital with rotting teeth. Tooth decay is currently the most common reason for children aged 6-10 years to be admitted to hospital.
A recent report by the Nuffield Trust concluded that NHS dentistry is at “its most perilous point in its 75 year history”, with access issues, a lack of funding and widening oral health inequalities.
There are 10 dental training centres around the country and not a single one of them is in the East of England.
I was really pleased to see the Labour MP Paulette Hamilton, a former nurse, highlighting the lack of a dentistry training facilities in the East of England during a Westminster debate. She also highlighted that the East of England has some of the worst outcomes relating to dentistry in the whole of the UK.
No doubt a new training facility, linked to a new graduate tie in scheme is part of the solution to improving dentistry in Norfolk but it is not the only solution. It takes more than 5 years to train to become a dentist and frankly Norfolk residents cannot wait that long.
One of the most pressing challenges is the need for wider reform of the NHS dental contract and increased funding. Reform has been talked about for almost as long as the contract has existed but like so many of the challenges facing this county and the country it has been kicked into the long grass for another day. Leading dentistry bodies have called the government’s proposals for the contract as “vague” “frustrating and “deflating”.
Deploying dental vans to under-served areas is to be welcomed, so to the idea of golden help payments to attract dentists into certain areas and one would hope given our challenges that Norfolk would benefit from these proposals, but, this is not a long term solution to our dental challenges. It is a mere sticking plaster or perhaps more appropriately a short-term filling, and the government must recognise the scale of the NHS dentistry problem and come up with more comprehensive package of solutions.
Support the motion, but we need to go much further.
