Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan today (Thursday 27 April) renewed his calls for urgent action to tackle the Portsmouth dentist shortage following a new price hike for local patients.
The City MP has said that Portsmouth people are living in a “dental desert” and matters are being made worse as NHS Patient Charges for Dentistry in England rose by 8.5% in England this week.
This increase will hit millions of patients on modest incomes, including patients in Portsmouth South.
Following this hike, NHS bridges, crowns or dentures now cost £306.80 in England compared to £203.00 in Wales.
The British Dental Association (BDA) has said the Conservative Government has a duty to explain why patients in Portsmouth must pay over £100 more for exactly the same NHS care as patients receive in Wales.
Mr Morgan has called on local people to make their voices heard on the dentist shortage by filling in his survey so he can continue lobbying for change.
Under the current government dentists are quitting in droves. 2,000 dentists quit the NHS in 2021, around 10% of all dentists employed in England.
The Association of Dental Groups (ADG) has found that Portsmouth has the 7th lowest amount of NHS dentists per 100,000 in the country, at 42.
Earlier this year a pair of new dentist practices in Portsmouth received 3,000 registration calls in five days from local residents demonstrating the overwhelming local demand for increased services.
According to the BDA chronic underfunding and the current NHS dental contract are to blame for long-standing problems with burnout, recruitment and retention in NHS dental services.
In real terms, net Government spend on general dental practices in England has been cut by over a third over the past decade, with the number of NHS dental practices in England falling by more than 1,200 in the five years prior to the pandemic.
Stephen Morgan, Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, said:
“A decade of Tory government mismanagement has seen dentists quitting in their droves leaving Portsmouth people living in a dental desert.
“On top of dismal local access, local residents now have to deal with the double whammy of increased NHS dentist charges as well as intolerable waiting lists.
“I will continue to do all I can to lobby for change on this issue. The last Labour government reduced waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks and the next one will ensure patients once again get the treatment they need.”
Mr Morgan is spending time on the frontline in our city’s health and social care services to hear first-hand the impact of the crisis in NHS dentistry and the dental desert Portsmouth has become. He has also raised the issue frequently in Parliament.
Mr Morgan’s dentist survey is available at www.stephenmorgan.org.uk/dentist
