Alistair Strathern MP Demands Action on Dentistry

PRESS RELEASE FROM ALISTAIR STRATHERN MP

WEDNESDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MP Demands Action on Dentistry

Alistair Strathern, Labour MP for Mid Bedfordshire, has today demanded action from the government on NHS dentistry.

Today in Parliament Mr Strathern asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Victoria Atkins, to commit to reforming the NHS dentistry contract, in the hopes of widening access to dental care.

The government has today offered it's plan to try to improve dentistry, with the British Dental Association (BDA) calling it ‘rearranging the deckchairs’.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Alistair Strathern MP said:

"I'm sure fellow former teachers here today will have similar memories of the disappointment they felt when, after repeated delays and excuses, a student finally handed in some work, only for it to turn out not just to be a copy of someone else's work, but a pretty poor one at that.

"While after so much delay and uncertainty, dentistry is at breaking point. Any progress, however late, has to be welcomed. But every local professional I've met with has stressed the need for fundamental reform of the contract to get things done.

"With 14 years of this Tory Government now in place, why won't the minister commit to finally reforming the contract and providing the boost to dentistry that my constituents so desperately want to see?"

Data from a Freedom of Information request has revealed that last year, nearly 800 people across Bedfordshire were admitted to accident and emergency units for tooth-related reasons. In the year before, 165 children in central Bedfordshire presented at hospitals requiring a tooth extraction.

ENDS