The Government has announced £50million of additional funding for a rapid programme to tackle some of the backlog in dentistry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the scheme extra appointments will be offered including outside of normal hours to treat people in the early morning, evening, and at weekends.
Funding will secure up to 350,000 additional dental appointments allowing people suffering from oral pain, disease, and infection to get the care they need, as services drive back to pre-pandemic levels.
Children, people with learning disabilities, autism, or severe mental health problems, will be prioritised as part of a dentistry treatment push over the coming months, with the one-off funding available until the end of the financial year.
Locally, NHS teams will use the funds to secure increase care capacity amongst local dentists already operating to help patients suffering from oral ill-health.
Commenting, St Austell and Newquay’s Member of Parliament Steve Double said:
“It is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated already existing issues with NHS dentistry in Cornwall, in particular waiting times, and this funding from the Government is very helpful in moving to resolve this.”
“The South West will be getting nearly £5million of funding for this purpose and I will be working with my Cornish MP colleagues and NHS Kernow to ensure Cornwall gets its fair share of this allocation.”
“However there are root issues to the lack of NHS dentist provision in Cornwall that predate the pandemic. What we need is fundamental reform of the national Dentist Contract, which at present does not incentivise NHS dentists to see patients. I am pleased to see the Government is now working on contract reform to tackle these long term issues and I hope to see more detail on this soon.”