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Dental Services

Question for Department of Health and Social Care

UIN 12257, tabled on 8 June 2021

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase access to NHS dental care.

Answered on

16 June 2021

National Health Service dentists have been asked to maximise safe throughput, focussing first on urgent care and vulnerable groups followed by overdue appointments. This has been underpinned by the requirement for dental providers to deliver 60% of normal activity volumes for the first six months of 2021/22 for full payment of their NHS contractual value. In addition, NHS England and NHS Improvement have provided a flexible commissioning toolkit to local commissioners to help focus the available capacity on those that need it most and to reduce oral health inequalities.

We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England to increase levels of service as fast as possible, taking into account the ongoing infection prevention and control and social distancing requirements. In resuming services, a careful balance is needed between increasing dental activity and ensuring patients and staff are protected from ongoing infection risk.

For the longer term, the Department has asked NHS England and NHS Improvement to work with the British Dental Association, to build on the learning from the dental contract reform programme. Through this work, the Department is seeking to bring forward implementable proposals that address the key challenges facing the delivery of NHS dentistry and improve patient access.