Minister to face questions on government plans for NHS dental recovery
MPs are expected to press Health Minister Andrea Leadsom on the government’s recovery plan for NHS dental services and whether it will be sufficient to end a crisis of access for patients.
Meeting details
Shawn Charlwood, Chair of the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee, is among witnesses appearing before MPs. The BDA has described the Committee’s report on dentistry as an “instruction manual to save NHS dentistry”.
Questions to the Minister are likely to focus on delays to reform of the dental contract. In its NHS dentistry report, the committee called for fundamental reform of the contract to end a “crisis of access”. With the earliest changes on the contract not until 2025, the absence of reform is seen as the missing piece of the recovery plan. Further questions are expected on how the plan will ensure everyone who needs an NHS dentist can access one, funding of the recovery plan, and the timetable for its delivery.