AN MP has called on health bosses to set out how many of the extra 350,000 NHS dental appointments being made available to tackle the Covid backlog will be available to his constituents - to ensure they do not miss out.
Shipley MP Philip Davies fears London will be given a disproportionate amount of the slots and insisted each area should be given an equal share.
He said everyone who wants to access good and local NHS dental provision should be able to and said the Department of Health must publish allocations to ensure transparency.
Mr Davies said: “No one should be forced to pay for private dental treatment because they cannot get on an NHS list. This is one of the recurring problems we all see as MPs and the past two years has exacerbated the problem. While I welcome extra funding and the promise of early morning and weekend appointments to tackle the backlog, I want to ensure a fair proportion of those appointments will be going to my constituents.”
The appointments will be available until the end of the financial year, meaning the majority will be in February and March.
Throughout the pandemic many people resorted to DIY dentistry because they could not get an appointment, or if one was available, many were unable to pay private costs.
Mr Davies added: “NHS dentistry provision was a huge problem before the pandemic and Covid has just exacerbated a pre-existing crisis in accessing care.
“I am repeatedly told by constituents they are struggling to access care. Many surgeries appear to be prioritising emergency treatment, meaning routine check-ups and non-urgent work is delayed. I understand emergencies need to be dealt with first but continual delays could result in more emergencies and routine or non-urgent work becoming a bigger problem than it originally was.”
Mr Davies has written and spoken to the Chancellor about the issue many times and called on him to guarantee the long-term sustainability of the service for constituents.
