Portsmouth MP Visits Dental Coalface
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- Published: Tuesday, 30 August 2022 07:39
- Written by Guy Tuggle
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Portsmouth has the seventh lowest number of dentists per ‘100,000 population in the country* and the MP for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan (Lab), is no stranger to his constituents’ desperation.
In a bid to better understand the issues, the MP was invited to pay a visit to Smile Dental Care in the city to see for himself the challenges.
Mr Morgan spoke with various members of the team including dentists and business managers to gain a coal-face understanding.
According to a report in local newspaper The News, their discussions examined the need for more flexible commissioning of NHS dental services and relaxing the regulations that erect barriers to foreign clinicians entering the British dental workforce.
198 patients had failed to turn up for their appointments in the previous month Mr Morgan learned and this meant 68.75 hours of surgery time had been lost forever. Patients being abusive towards practice staff was amongst the concerns raised.
Smile Dental Care is a member of the Association of Dental Groups (‘ADG’), an association that represents dental groups with more than ten practices.
According to its website, there are currently 35 practices in the Smile Dental Care group with the landing page for each practice declaring its inability to accept new NHS patients.
After his visit Mr Morgan said “It’s been useful to spend time on the frontline and see first-hand the current challenges a dental practice in our city is facing and to listen to concerns and ideas about what can be done to resolve them”.
The MP reiterated that recruitment and retention and contract reform were the vital ingredients necessary to “determine the services in our community to get British dentistry back on track.
I will be taking what I’ve learnt from the time at the dental practice back to Parliament to ensure Portsmouth patients finally get access to the NHS dental services they need and deserve” said Mr Morgan.
*ADG figures.
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