Plymouth’s Dental Taskforce has agreed the three key priorities that it will collectively work towards to improve NHS dental provision for local residents.
The taskforce was created last year in response to the city’s growing dental crisis, which has seen over 22,000 Plymouth residents join the waiting list for an NHS dentist.
The cross-party group includes representatives from Plymouth City Council, NHS Devon, Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise (PDSE), Livewell Southwest and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust as well as the city’s three MPs.
The taskforce has agreed to focus on three key priorities:
- Deliver a new dental facility in the city centre run by the Peninsula Dental School which is aligned to the oral health needs in the city.
- Provide additional funding to Plymouth City Council to enable it to enhance the oral health improvement offer available in the city, to help prevent dental health issues.
- Use some of Plymouth’s annual NHS dental underspend to commission new services for high priority groups and those who don’t have access to an NHS dentist.
Since June 2023 the taskforce has been working to deliver improvements, such as a new scheme by PDSE to provide NHS dental appointments to primary school children. It will now focus on campaigning for and delivering these three priorities.
Councillor Mary Aspinall, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care and Chair of the Taskforce said: “There is still a huge amount of work to be done in Plymouth and so we will keep campaigning for better outcomes for our residents. At the moment the situation is only getting worse. There are thousands of people still waiting for an NHS dentist and we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg, because it doesn’t capture the number of people who don’t have an NHS dentist but haven’t joined the waiting list, or who have simply given up and had to pay private dental fees.
“We will be focusing on our three key priorities over the coming months and particularly hope that we can utilise the local dental underspend for the benefit of local residents that are most desperately in need of dental care.”
The underspend is a result of some high street dentists not being able to provide NHS appointments, and historically this money has been returned. In future it is hoped that this funding will be ringfenced to use towards other oral health initiatives in the city.
Luke Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said: “It is ridiculous that when faced with a growing NHS dental crisis in our city, we return millions in unspent dental funding each year simply because there aren’t enough dentists in Plymouth to use the paltry funding we have been allocated.
"The problem is only getting worse in Plymouth, with thousands still unable to see a dentist. That's why I have relentlessly campaigned for building a new city centre dental hub to provide urgent care and prioritising the training of more dentists for our city.
"These three priorities set out by Plymouth's Dental Taskforce will help focus our collective lobbying and build on the campaigns I’ve been running as a local MP since 2017. While we can continue to do more by working together locally, we now need Ministers to step up and address the crisis in NHS dentistry properly.”
Johnny Mercer, MP for Plymouth Moor View, said: "I have been clear that Plymouth's dental provision is in an unacceptable state. Last November, I facilitated free dental appointments for schoolkids at Peninsula Dental School. Progress since has been frustratingly slow. I welcome the Dental Task Force's newly-agreed three priorities - a new dental facility for Peninsula; additional dental funding for Plymouth City Council; and the use of NHS dental underspend - which will deliver long-overdue improvements to our City's dental care. These three local priorities will complement the Government's NHS Dental Recovery Plan which creates 2.5m extra appointments and helps areas like ours where recruitment is difficult."
Gary Streeter, MP for South West Devon said: “The recent announcement of the NHS Dentistry Recovery Plan and its significant new investment by government is hugely to be welcomed but we will continue to work together locally to improve services for local people.”