'Urgent' plea goes out to parliament to resume probe into UK's dental crisis
HEALTH campaigners have demanded the ‘urgent’ resurrection of a probe into Britain’s strained dental industry amid claims dentists are facing a ‘catastrophic’ crisis in morale.
Westminster’s health and social care committee launched an inquiry into the state of British dentistry in July 2019, in a bid to tackle problems with recruitment and retention.
But the parliamentary investigation was scrapped months later as a result of December’s general election.
Now leading health bodies are demanding the committee’s chairman, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, resumes the study.
Dr Eddie Crouch, chairman of the British Dental Association (BDA), said the probe needed to ‘get back on track’.
He added: ‘Covid has smashed the flawed foundations this service was built on.
‘Our patients are facing a service on the brink, and the committee must take this opportunity to provide urgent scrutiny.’
The plea comes as The News reveals the strain facing the nation's dentists as part of a week-long series of investigative reports.
More than 77,000 people nationwide have flocked to hospital A&Es, ramping up pressure on already-stretched nurses and medics.
Meanwhile, 1.45 million people across the UK are unable to access an NHS dentists, with some resorting to yanking out their own teeth to stop the agony of toothache.
In Westminster, ,ore than 100 pieces of written evidence had been submitted to the parliamentary inquiry into the state of the UK’s dental industry, including comments from NHS England and campaign groups.
Among submissions were dozens of statements from dentists, who warned they felt ‘worthless’ amid soaring financial strains and the increased threat of legal action by patients.
Dr Crouch added the current provision of NHS dentistry was ‘woefully inadequate’ and warned: ‘The morale in the profession is at an all-time low.’
Concerns were also raised about the growing number of giant corporations taking over huge swathes of UK dental practices.
In July, 20,000 people in Portsmouth were left without an NHS dentist after Swiss firm, Colosseum Dental, pulled the plug on three practices unexpectedly.
Stephen Morgan, Portsmouth South MP and Labour’s shadow communities minister at the time, insisted Whitehall ‘must act’ and claimed the case had ‘highlighted catastrophic government failings that seemed indicative of the national picture’.
In June, Mr Hunt promised to reopen the shelved inquiry, but the BDA says it is yet to see tangible progress towards this.