Access to Dental Services: West Sussex

Debate between John Milne and Carla Lockhart

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Westminster Hall

[John Milne (Horsham) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) for shining a light on this important subject, which causes such distress for residents of West Sussex.

The Department for Health, like many Government Departments, has promised a consultation, as well as extensive reform of the dental contract. I appreciate that the Minister wants to get this right. He has said that the dental system is complex. He has also made it clear in the past that these changes will not be rushed. Speaking to dentists across my constituency and beyond, very few people would say that taking two years just to start a consultation could be called rushing.

The Government need to be clear with both dentists and patients. Dentists were told that the consultation would come last year; then they were told that it would come before the start of summer—but summer is more or less upon us, and we are still waiting. At this rate, the Government risk making no meaningful reforms to dentistry within this Parliament. This sense of political inertia is, of course, not confined to one Department, and we do not have to look far to imagine the reason for that.

Alongside those delays sits an equally serious issue: funding. The Government have been clear that no new funding is available for dental reform; I imagine that the Minister himself finds that deeply frustrating. Only about 40% of adults are effectively provided for within the current NHS dental budget, and even that is propped up by an estimated £1 billion cross-subsidy from private provision. The Public Accounts Committee was clear in its assessment: without frontloaded investment, meaningful reform has no chance of success.

What does this mean for residents in my constituency of Horsham? The honest answer is that we do not fully know, which is frustrating to say the least. Under the previous Conservative administration, West Sussex county council had not carried out a comprehensive oral health survey since before 2019. I have written to the new Lib Dem-led council asking it to ensure that West Sussex is included in the next survey, because without reliable data, we simply cannot design effective or targeted reforms.

The data that we do have is deeply concerning. A quarter of children in West Sussex are at high risk of tooth decay compared with a national average of roughly half that level. From an early age, we are sending out the message that oral health is not a priority. At the same time, we are seeing a growing reliance on urgent dental care, but as a substitute for routine check-ups. Preventive dentistry—the very foundation of a sustainable system—simply cannot function under those conditions. We risk raising a generation that engages with dental services only at a moment of crisis, and that will have profound long-term health consequences.

I am very much seeing the impact of this in my Horsham casework. One of my constituents, Gail, was recently removed, along with her daughter, from the dental register. It was not from any fault of her own, but simply because there are not enough dentists left who are willing to operate on NHS contracts. That is distressing enough for patients, but it is also deeply frustrating for dental professionals, who find themselves forced to turn away patients who they can see are in urgent need.

Another constituent, Medi, does have access to a dentist, but not locally, and we have heard the same from other Members. She has to travel three hours for her appointments in another part of the country completely. She suffers from arthritis, so the journey is not just inconvenient, but very painful. However, she cannot find anyone closer, and even the waiting lists are vague about when a place may eventually be available.

I have also heard directly from dentists in Horsham. One practitioner, who has worked in the NHS for over 15 years and has trained NHS dental graduates, told me that, each year, funding has become more constrained and the administrative burden continues to grow. Without proper support for preventive care, he warned, dentists simply “don’t stand a chance”.

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

The hon. Member is making a powerful point for his constituents. Similarly, in Northern Ireland only 50% of adults are registered with NHS dentists. Almost 400,000 registrations have been lost since 2023, and ultimately practices are leaving NHS dentistry because it is financially unsustainable. Would he agree with me that there needs to be a UK-wide look at this? While health is a devolved issue in Northern Ireland, there needs to be learning from the UK, because this is not just about waiting times, but about people finding a dentist who will actually take them on. Does he agree with me that we need a UK-wide resolution?

[John Milne]

I very much agree that this is a national crisis. Some local authorities or local ICBs are better than others, but this is basically a national problem and needs national action.

The dentist I mentioned has told me that many of his peers have already stopped offering NHS services, and the ones left are increasingly considering doing exactly the same. That tells us that the entire dental system is slipping into freefall. The broader figures reinforce the local picture. Only 40% of adults in West Sussex have seen a dentist in the past two years, which is a fall of 7%. Among children, the figure has dropped from 63% to 58%. Over the past five years, the number of residents per dentist in West Sussex has increased by a fifth. That is a huge jump, and further evidence that the system is heading for collapse.

From my conversations with the chief executive officer of the newly merged Surrey and Sussex ICB, I know that dentistry is a priority area for her and that the team are doing their best to introduce flexibility where possible. However, they face cuts of up 50% in budgets and staffing, which are enormous challenges not just for the leadership, but for the NHS teams on the ground. There is real concern that, unless we change now, dentistry risks becoming an expensive luxury, rather than a universally accessible service.

To conclude, the combination of delayed reforms and reduced funding is leaving patients without access to care and professionals without the support they need to provide it. Oral health inequalities continue to widen. I appreciate that this Government are once again picking up the pieces from their Conservative predecessors, but the obligation now falls on today’s Ministers. Unless we see a change in trajectory, we will be left with exactly what the Public Accounts Committee warned us about—no money, no reform, no teeth.