Dental Services: Rural Areas
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of piloting mobile NHS dental clinics to help improve access to routine dental care in remote communities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The decision about whether to commission dental vans should be made locally by integrated care boards (ICBs). Local areas know the needs of their population best and are best placed to make decisions about whether or how mobile dental vans can contribute to meeting the dental care needs of their population. For the West Dorset constituency this is the NHS Dorset ICB.
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