Andrea recognised that more needed to be done to improve accessibility to dentistry and pledged the “dentistry recovery plan will be published shortly, setting out a big package of change.”
In the meantime, she explained that a package of reforms has already been implemented. These changes have resulted in “1.7m more adults being seen, 800,000 more children being seen and a 23 per cent increase in NHS activity in the past year.”
Rachel Maskell, the minister for York Central, replied, “We were promised “before the summer”, we were promised “after the summer”, we were promised “before Christmas”, we were promised “soon” and now we have been promised “shortly”. The reality is that Labour has a plan, and the government does not. In York, we cannot get an NHS dentist either… My constituents have nowhere to go. What is the minister going to do to ensure that my constituents can access NHS dentistry?”
Andrea recognised the “challenge for some people” to access dental services”. Following the pandemic, “almost every dentist had to stop working altogether”. But she pointed out that the “situation has improved over the last year”. Andrea added that the upcoming plans include “significant reforms” which will “enable many more people to be seen by NHS dentists” to further improve the situation.
Later in the session, Andrea mentioned the government will “be bringing forward measures to enable dental therapists to work at the top of their training” to improve capacity.
Elaborating further on the aims of the long-term workforce plan, Andrea said training places will be increased, and changes to overseas registration will be made to improve capacity. She added that the government “will be bringing forward our recovery plan very soon, which will immediately expand the incentives to NHS dentists.”