Mr. Moore, who recently signed a Backbench Business Debate application on access to NHS dentistry, has welcome that dental patients in Southport are to benefit from access to more appointments thanks to a £50 million national government funding injection.
The North West is to get £7,310,000 as part of the funding to secure up to 350,000 additional dental appointments across the country, allowing people suffering from oral pain, disease, and infection to get the care they need, as services drive back to pre-pandemic levels.
Children, along with people with learning disabilities, autism, or severe mental health problems, will be prioritised as part of a dentistry treatment push over the coming months, with the one-off funding available until the end of the financial year.
Locally, NHS teams will use the funds to secure increase care capacity amongst local dentists already operating to help patients suffering from oral ill-health.
Dentists involved in the scheme will be paid more than a third on top of their normal sessional fee for delivering this care outside of core hours, such as early morning and weekend work.
During the pandemic, the NHS has protected dentists’ income when strict infection prevention control guidance meant dentists needed to operate at severely reduced capacity.
Infection prevention control measures were significantly eased in November 2021, and since the start of this year, the NHS has required dental practices to operate at 85% of their pre-pandemic contracted activity, the latest stage in the return to pre-pandemic workloads for NHS dentists.
Damien Moore MP commented:
“’I welcome the news of an extra £7.3 million of capacity funding for dental practices in the North West.
“I understand the immense pressures that dental practices in Southport have faced throughout the Covid pandemic, and I very much hope that as we now move out of the restrictions, we can return to, or even exceed, pre-pandemic capacity levels. This means aiming to ensure that everyone who would like to register as an NHS patient at a dental practice can do so and can do so easily.
“I have been in regular contact with colleagues in NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care on this issue, and am glad that Southport will see increased funding and dental appointment availability as a result.”
Minister for Primary Care Maria Caulfield added:
“Access to NHS dentistry has been given a much-needed boost with an extra £50 million announced for NHS dental care services which will urgently give more people access to vital dental care when they need it.
“Through the pandemic, we have prioritised urgent dental needs, vulnerable patients and free treatment for children and thanks to the hard work of staff, the delivery of urgent care is back to pre-pandemic levels. We are now working with the dental sector to recover and reform services and this £50 million boost will help with that recovery”.
Chief Dental Officer for England Sara Hurley said:
“Dental services are a vital part of the NHS providing oral health care to all age groups, and that’s why we have taken this unprecedented action to boost NHS dental services.
“More than 600 urgent dental health hubs were rapidly ramped up during the pandemic to deliver urgent care for patients, and the NHS is now getting key services like dentistry back to pre-pandemic levels – injecting an extra £50 million into routine services will help provide check-ups and treatment for hundreds of thousands of people”.
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