I met recently with the Chair of the Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth Local Dental Committee, Dr Dharmen Patel, as well as Dr Martin Skipper who is the Head of Policy for the LDC Confederation, to discuss support for NHS Dental Services during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Regretfully, due to prior commitments, I had not been able to attend the Covid-19: Dental Services debate on 14 January, and therefore I was glad to have the opportunity to hear directly about the pressures being faced by our local dental practices and the support they require moving forward.
Drs Patel and Skipper are concerned that NHS dentists are currently being expected to hit 45 per cent of their pre-pandemic activity. If activity falls below 36 per cent, practices will have to return the majority of the NHS funding they receive in the first three months of this year, and this runs the real risk of NHS dental practice closures across the UK.
I know how important access to NHS dental services is to so many people, and I have therefore written to the Minister for Prevention, Public Health and Primary Care, as well as to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and to the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee to raise these concerns directly.
You can read copies of all of these letters below. As ever, please do not hesitate to contact me again if I can be of any assistance on this or any other matter.
Photo by Caroline LM on Unsplash.