Years of neglect under the last Government has left NHS dentistry broken across the country. Here in Portsmouth, the effects of this have been especially felt, with patients left in pain without appointments, or queueing around the block just to be seen.
However, thanks to action taken by this Labour Government, along with my tireless campaigning and by working with others, this is changing.
Today, the University of Portsmouth has officially launched a new Dental School, which will allow the next generation of dentists to be trained right here in our city.
The launch follows this week’s announcement that the upcoming Dental School has secured half of the national additional training places allocated by the Government for 2027 onwards.
These places, which are part of the first sustained expansion of dental school places in nearly 20 years, have been allocated to the University of Portsmouth to ensure dentists are being trained in an area where accessing an NHS dental appointment has long been reported to be difficult in the past.
Providing dental training within Portsmouth will help to ensure that NHS dentists available to local people will not only increase, as evidence indicates that dental students tend to practice near where they trained, but also reflect the community they will serve.
This follows the Government’s previous action to directly address Portsmouth’s dental desert through providing additional urgent appointments in Portsmouth, which has resulted in 23,000 extra appointments for local people over the course of a year.
Ahead of today’s official opening, I made a visit to the University of Portsmouth with Health Minister Stephen Kinnock MP to discuss the major difference that local dentist training will be able to make for local people.
The new places are part of a wider package of measures to rebuild NHS dentistry. The Government has also invested in significantly expanding the number of places on professional registration exams for overseas-trained dentists, with up to 2,400 more dentists expected to be able to join the register annually by 2028 to 2029.
The Government is also reforming the NHS dental contract itself, to reward dentists more fairly, prioritise the highest-need patients, and strengthen preventive healthcare.
Recent reforms to the contract will create new long-term treatment pathways for patients with significant dental decay or gum disease with improved payments for dentists, alongside requiring practices to deliver a set amount of urgent care and pay dentists more fairly for this work.
Through the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is investing in prevention, improving access to dental care, and making it fairer for clinicians and patients.
This will take time, but this week has marked major progress for getting NHS dentistry back on its feet and helping to end the dental desert that Portsmouth has become.
Stephen Morgan MP
