University of Portsmouth dental school allocation is 'step in the right direction' but when will Portsmouth and Hampshire feel its effects?

With the University of Portsmouth celebrating the allocation of 25 new dental school places beginning in 2027, doubts have been raised as to how much of an impact this will have on NHS dentistry in the region.

The British Dental Association have been quick to come out and say wider NHS dentistry reform is required to have any impact on services in the south with the new dental schools being “no silver bullet”.

The health minister Stephen Kinnock visited the university yesterday (June 3) and sat down with The News to discuss what the changes mean for Portsmouth and what is required to fix NHS dentistry in the south and England as a whole.

What has been announced?

The University of Portsmouth will become the first dental school in the south east as of September 2027 after it was allocated 25 government funded dental school places for home students. While 2027 will be the first cohort of students, the places are per year with an extra 25 places added every year thereafter for first year students.

The changes have been heralded by the university and Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan as a step towards bolstering the NHS workforce in Portsmouth in the coming years. Portsmouth has long been described as a dental desert with NHS appointments nigh-on impossible to come by, the hope is that students will stay where they have trained and increase the workforce and therefore provide more available NHS dental services.

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Will students stay in Portsmouth and work in the NHS?

While that is the hope, at this moment in time there is nothing to prevent students from graduating and moving, or to move straight into the private sector.

Health Minister Stephen Kinnock said: “Our data shows that a significant proportion of people who train to be a dentist in a particular town tend to put down roots and stay in that town. The key then is to make sure that they come out and do as much NHS work as possible and that is part of my agenda, to make NHS work more attractive.

“The first step is to address the issue of dental deserts, and it is clear that Portsmouth is one of those so I think this allocation is going to be a big step in the right direction.”

The director of dentistry at the University of Portsmouth, Professor Chris Louca told The News that the university’s aim is to recruit local students who already have roots in the area.

He said: “Our ambition is to recruit local students knowing that local students on graduation are far more likely to stay in the area and far more likely to work for the NHS and build the local NHS dental workforce.”

However, the health minister acknowledged that more needs to be done to encourage workers to stay in the NHS.

He said: “One of the advantages you have is that Portsmouth is a fantastic city and talking to the students, they love being here. How do we ensure they are doing NHS work if they do choose to stay? That is another important element of our reform programme, we are going to introduce legislation that when people train to be a dentist in England they will be obliged to do a minimum of say three years in the NHS when they have graduated.

“A consultation will be going out about how much time they will be obliged to do as there some legal issues around employment law for example but we are very keen to ensure they are tied in to doing at least three years NHS work after graduation which will be a boost for the NHS dentistry workforce.”

What wider reform is being called for?

The British Dental Association have labelled the new dental school places as move in the right direction but believe they will be ineffective without wider reform.

BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: “New dental schools are a step forward but are no silver bullet for ending dental deserts. Keeping even this tiny number of new graduates in the NHS hinges on making the service a place dentists would choose to build a career. That means real reform, wedded to sustainable funding.”

The Labour minister told The News that he agreed with the BDA and is working to change the NHS contract which he describes as “not fit for purpose”.

He said: “The other big piece of work is around reforming the NHS contract for dentistry, it is not fit for purpose and does not incentivise dentists to do NHS work. That is why we are seeing dentists haemorrhaging off into the private sector rather than staying and doing NHS work.

“You have to make sure the contract incentivises people to do it, lots of dentists want to do NHS work and put something back into the community but if the contract doesn't enable you to cover your costs then you wont be able to. We are reforming it, we have increased the tariff that you can get for doing urgent dentistry from £42 to £75 and we are in negotiations with the British Dental Association to do long term reform and we will be rolling out a public consultation for that over the summer.

“We agree with dentists and the BDA that these units of dental activity which is the basis of the contract are not fit for purpose and are a bit like a straight jacket which oblige dentists to work in a certain way rather than giving them flexibility that they need. They know their patients best and what they might need.”

Mr Kinnock, who is the MP for Aberafan Maesteg, bemoaned the current state of NHS dentistry.

He said: “We are in a very difficult situation with NHS dentistry, we inherited a situation where there was an almost £400 million underspend because dentists were giving the contract back as it didnt work for them and was not financially viable.

“We have an outrageous situation where the biggest cause of five to nine year old children being admitted to hospital in our country is to have their rotten teeth removed, that is frankly a disgrace.

He added: “There isn't one silver bullet, it is a whole range of measures that we are taking across workforce, across the contract, across modernisation and better use of technology. For example through electronic patient records, dentistry is going be the last part of the NHS to get onboard with that.

“There are a whole range of measures we are taking to get NHS dentistry back on its feet and fit for the future. I would love it to go further and faster, we are working as hard as we can on that but I do think this allocation of government funded places is a really big step in the right direction and we are proud to be announcing it.”

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How long before the impact of the new dental school places is felt in Portsmouth?

With the courses taking five years to complete and the first students not starting until September 2027, the effects of the changes could be years away.

The health minister said: “The key point is that at the University of Portsmouth they are doing a lot of work while they are studying. A lot of people who dial 111 in need of dental care are coming here so this school is already doing a lot of hands-on dentistry practice.

“Talking to students here many of them are seeing two or three patients a day for a couple of days a week as well as doing work placements in the community. From 2027 onwards the impact will start to be seen.”

Professor Louca added: “Our Dental Academy is already deeply embedded in the Portsmouth community. Our students provide supervised free dental health services to the public and gain invaluable hands-on experience in the process.

“With this allocation, we can now extend that commitment and train fully qualified dentists who will go on to transform access to NHS dental care across our region.”