Government accepts majority of MPs’ recommendations on NHS dentistry

The Government has admitted it must do more to ensure that everyone can access an NHS dentist. This comes in a response to the Committee’s report in which Ministers were called on to end a ‘crisis of access’ that had led to unacceptable levels of pain and distress.

In the Government response to the MPs’ report, Secretary of State Victoria Atkins said the Government accepted the majority of their recommendations and recognised there was ‘still much more to be done’. The Secretary of State is due to make her first appearance before the Committee at 16.00 this afternoon.

Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee Steve Brine MP said:

“We welcome the Government’s admission that it needs to do more to make sure that everyone can access an NHS dentist and we’re pleased to see the new Secretary of State’s commitment to ‘make real improvements.’ Ending the pain and distress people suffer because they’re denied access to a dentist must be a top priority.

“However, we called for fundamental reform to the contract that pays dentists for NHS work so it’s disappointing that the Government hasn’t fully accepted this recommendation and we’re concerned steps taken will still not go far enough.

“The Secretary of State says the Government has ‘begun laying the foundations of change’. Yet there is still no date for the publication of the dental recovery plan to this committee’s continued frustration. We’ll be pressing her on this point when she appears before us this afternoon.”