The Dentist Leafleting his Town to Build an NHS List
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- Published: Tuesday, 10 June 2025 21:40
- Written by Peter Ingle
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“At the time I was thinking I must be the most qualified leaflet dropper in North Yorkshire,” dentist Mark Green told The Yorkshire Post. He did this to promote his practice after sitting in his surgery “twiddling my thumbs” due to a lack of NHS patients.
The irony is not lost on him that were he to do the same now in Thornton-le-Dale, he would be overwhelmed, and, “there would be a queue of a thousand.” Things have changed beyond recognition since Dr Green’s last-resort marketing efforts of 1997.
In 2025 visitors to Thornton-le-Dale to attend its famous car auctions may leave with the vehicle of their dreams. They are very unlikely to leave with an NHS dental appointment, indeed currently the North East and Yorkshire have the lowest proportion of practices doing NHS work in England.
As for his practice, Mark was forced to sell it, as he could not recruit the staff he needed to offer NHS care. When asked how things had moved on from his once very gappy NHS appointment book, to an era of DIY extractions, Mark as a BDA representative and 2023 LDC Conference Chair, has a simple answer. The blames the New Labour, New Contract, of 2006.
He quoted English Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty. The government’s chief medical adviser had told MP’s that: “The NHS system is very weak and has got weaker over time.” The CMO had also provided a succinct analysis of the last thirty years progress in UK dental health, saying: “The last time I think most people in the country would consider that NHS dentistry was operating as they would anticipate it should do was probably in the early 1990’s and the changes since then have all tended to either to do nothing or make things worse.”
Mark offered his own progress report on the new government’s performance: “we were promised great new things by Labour but then they realised the cupboard was bare.”
Even after selling his coastal practice in 2018 with “thousands and thousands” of patients because of an inability to recruit, Mark wanted to carry on offering NHS care. He now works at another practice where an ICB scheme allows him to take on new patients. He realises that this makes him a rarity in the North East and Yorkshire.
Each year more of the generation of GDP’s that shared Mark Green’s commitment to the NHS are leaving the stage. The DHSC minister with responsibility for dentistry, Stephen Kinnock, will not be attending this year’s LDC conference in person. With his travelling time to conference saved, Mr Kinnock might pause to reflect on who will be left to provide NHS dental care in the coming years.
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