Health Minister Mixes Threat and Evasion on NHS Dental Access

Health Minister Mixes Threat and Evasion on NHS Dental Access

Neil O’Brien MP is one of the Government’s more prolific users of Twitter. He recently put up a picture of a policewoman with a caption proudly announcing the number of police officers that have recently been taken on. His response to a recent question from Chloe Smith who is an Assistant Whip for the government, may not have inspired much confidence about a similarly cheery posting about dentist numbers appearing anytime soon.

This is unfortunate as Neil O’Brien is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and a regular responder to questions about dentistry. Chloe Smith had asked what recent assessment he had made, “of the extent to which dental practices which have NHS patient availability are updating the NHS find a dentist webpage to show this.” A little ominously she went on to ask if, “he plans to take further steps to encourage practices to update those listings.”

While it is not unheard of for MP’s to ask colleagues a question that they can answer in a way that will reflect well upon them both, Chloe Smith, who represents Norwich North had good reason to make this enquiry. Checking the NHS find a dentist tool over a 17 mile radius of central Norwich reveals two practices that will only take NHS patients referred by another dentist. 17 show as not accepting new patients and the remaining 31 carry the advice that, “This dentist surgery has not given a recent update on whether they’re taking new NHS patients. You can contact them directly to ask.” GDPUK readers may be able to guess the answer.

The Minister replied that in November 2022 the government had introduced a contractual responsibility “for National Health Service dentists to keep their NHS.UK profiles up to date.” He went on to say that “Commissioners will have access to a report showing which practices are non-compliant, with monitoring due to come into effect from the end of March 2023.”

It is not clear if either MP expects the find a dentist results to reveal untapped pools of availability once they are updated, or simply wish to save their constituents the frustration of making fruitless phone calls.

In a government that, to quote BDA chair Eddie Crouch, indulges in “mythmaking” about the state of NHS dentistry, Mr O’Brien is a master of dental fiction. This was elegantly displayed in his recent response to an MP asking him what steps he was taking to help Ukranian refugees register at NHS dentists and access necessary dental healthcare. His enigmatic reply was that they could access NHS dental care from “any NHS dental practice that is accepting NHS patients.” He then had the audacity to add that, “patients struggling to find a local dentist can contact NHS England’s customer Contact Centre for assistance or contact NHS 111 if seeking urgent care.” He could have put it another way, and simply explained that they were being fully integrated into society here, and could share the lack of dental access with British citizens.

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