On Monday 22nd June, Dr James Smith, Associate Dentist at mydentist, led a Parliamentary session in association with the aim of shining a light on the continued struggles within NHS dentistry, the strides being taken to improve access to NHS dental care by mydentist, and to outline suggested ways that MPs could provide further support.
Key stakeholders including Dr Sarah Weston, Clinical Development Advisor at mydentist, Professor Zoe Marshman, Dental Public Health Professor at the University of Sheffield, and Dr Shiv Pabary, Chair of the BDA General Dental Practitioners Committee, all met with MPs including Connor Naismith, Labour MP for Crewe and Nantwich. Throughout the session, all delegates partook in an open and frank discussion about NHS dentistry, offering different perspectives and opinions to form a diverse and insightful conversation.
Despite the challenges facing the UK Government alongside the heatwave last week, a high number of MPs attended the session and approached it open-mindedly. The group discussed the issues that exist within NHS Dentistry and delegates from within the sector put forward ideas and suggestions to reform the NHS contract, ultimately in an effort to make NHS dental care more accessible to the public and to ensure it is sustainable for years to come.
Dr James Smith stressed the vitality of not just fixing the problems that exist in primary dental care, but to also ramp up public health provisions – from education to fluoridation. The sentiment amongst the group was shared concern for the future of NHS dentistry and a willingness to influence positive change, with the importance of wider oral health prevention in the general population lamented by all.
Dr Sarah Weston also shone a light on the restraints of delivering dentistry under the current contract, such as the lack of reward for UDA over-delivery and the inability to distribute UDAs between practices. Dr Weston also stressed the need for oral health education to be a critical part of any future initiatives to drive down oral health inequalities and decay.
Despite the challenges facing NHS dentistry, Dr James Smith retains a positive outlook: “The purpose of the event was to improve awareness with parliamentarians on the issues that exist within NHS dentistry, as it is an issue that every MP no matter where in the country they represent, with oral health inequalities and a lack of access to NHS care a nationwide issue. The key takeaway I took from our session is that NHS dentistry is broken, but can be fixed, and the will and desire to fix it exists within the Government and Parliament. Actions need to be taken, but this is the first of many positive steps to achieve change.”
Dr James Smith, Associate Dentist at mydentist Haslington, continues: “It was a privilege to have been able to chair and organise a session in Parliament on NHS dentistry, drawing together industry experts for a truly meaningful, productive discussion with MPs of all parties who are really passionate about improving access to dental care for their constituents. This is the first of many steps in doing what we can to improve the service we all love and want to rescue, for the betterment of our communities.”
Sarah Weston, Clinical Development Advisor at mydentist, commented: “I want to give credit to James for organising this – it is no mean feat, and it went extremely well. From my perspective as both a CDA and clinician of 30 years, it is so refreshing and welcome to have a young dentist like James express such a desire and interest to be part of the change that we need. I know there are more like him out there and we need to build on what he has achieved so far. I was really honoured to be part of this, and it was brilliant to speak to MPs who genuinely seemed keen to implement change.”
Dr James Smith, Associate Dentist at mydentist Haslington, concluded: “I am determined that this is the first of many other actions. I would like to organise further of these events for MPs and ministers in future. I also intend to set up a parliamentary petition and get this out to keep up pressure and force debate, so we can continue to take steps in the right direction and implement changes to create an NHS dental contract that is able to better support the UK.”
