Putney MP Makes Call for Action on NHS Dentistry

Fleur Anderson says 455 people attended local hospital with tooth decay last year

Fleur Anderson addresses the House of Commons in a debate on the issue

January 19, 2024

Fleur Anderson has highlighted figures which show that in the last financial year (2022/23) 455 people attended A&E at St. George’s Hospital due to dental decay.

The Putney MP led a coalition of 101 MPs in 2020, demanding that the Chancellor ‘throw dentistry a lifeline or risk it never recovering from Covid-19’ as crisis in NHS dentistry grew.

She now says that her worst fears are being realised as patients find it impossible to get an appointment with an NHS dentist when they need one. Across the country last year, 67,000 patients attended emergency departments with tooth decay. Currently, tooth decay is the most common reason for children aged 6-10 to be admitted to hospital.

Her statement comes in the wake of fellow MP Ashley Dalton, Labour MP for West Lancashire, last week telling the House of Commons, “It’s easier to get your hands on Taylor Swift tickets in 2024 than it is to get an NHS dental appointment.”

Ms Anderson explained how the campaign began three years ago saying, “Dentists across Putney were writing in to me at the time saying that they needed vital Government support to cope during Covid 19. The Government failed to act and the impacts are stark – nearly 500 people were forced to attend A&E due to dental decay, as people simply can’t see dentists. It is an appalling state of affairs.”

She had previously demanded in the House of Commons that the Government address the crisis in the dental sector, having visited a local GP surgery in Putney. At the GP practice, she was told by doctors that their primary issue was NHS dentistry for children – as parents were unable to get a dental appointment, children were attending the GP for tooth decay.

She continued, “An extremely upsetting impact of this Government mismanagement is the impact on children suffering tooth decay. Doctors in Putney have told me that due to the lack of dental appointments, they are seeing children with advanced tooth decay. This puts even more pressure on our GP surgeries. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the immense build-up of our healthcare backlog, we needed a pragmatic, proactive response from our Government more than ever.

“Routine dental appointments must be funded adequately to prevent the escalation of dental problems, costing far more money to resolve down the line – not to mention the agony and stress experienced by patients seeking care. Labour would also introduce supervised toothbrushing in schools, just one pragmatic measure to tackle the dentistry crisis.”

Labour’s analysis of patient survey data suggests that 4.75 million people across England were denied an appointment with an NHS dentist in the past two years. Figures show millions of people were either told no appointments were available or that the practice they contacted was not taking on new patients.

Labour says that if elected it will provide an extra 700,000 urgent dentists appointments and reform the NHS dental contract, as part of a package of measures to rescue NHS dentistry. The Party has also pledged to offer incentives for new dentists to work in areas with the greatest need, to tackle the emergence of ‘dental deserts’ where no NHS dentists are taking on new patient and supervised toothbrushing in schools for 3-5 year olds, targeted at the areas with highest childhood tooth decay.

Wes Streeting MP, Shadow Health Secretary said, “Millions of people are being denied an appointment with an NHS dentist when they need it. Labour will rescue NHS dentistry from this crisis, so people can get an appointment when they need one. We will provide 700,000 more appointments a year to those in the most urgent need and recruit more dentists to areas with the worst shortages.”

The government says that dentistry remains a key priority and it has accepted the findings of a recent report by the Health and Social Care Select Committee. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Victoria Atkins, says that more recent data shows the situation is improving adding, “We are fundamentally aligned to the overall ambition that NHS dentistry should be accessible and available for all those who need it. We have made significant progress through implementing our reforms announced in July 2022. These reforms included introducing a minimum unit of dental activity (UDA) value for practices, rewarding dentists more fairly for providing more complex care, making better use of the skills of the full range of dental professionals and allowing the best performing practices to see more patients.

“We recognise that there is still much more to be done. Our Dentistry Recovery Plan, which will be published shortly, will build upon our initial reforms and make further progress in line with the Committee’s recommendations.”