Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the difficulties that (a) medical and (b) dental clinics are facing due to (i) staff shortages and (ii) reduced patient numbers during the covid-19 outbreak.

Arrangements have been put in place to protect general practitioner (GP) practices’ income during the pandemic, while freeing up their capacity to deliver essential services and the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Any GP practices facing difficulties should raise this with their local clinical commissioning group who will be able to provide support.

National Health Service dental practice remuneration, minus agreed deductions, has been protected throughout the pandemic, providing practices have complied with requirements set by NHS England and Improvement. The Department is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Chief Dental Officer for England to increase levels of dental service, as fast as is safely possible.