Dental Services
(asked on 18th October 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase NHS dental care provision across (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) the North West and (c) England.
Answered by
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to increase levels of National Health Service dental services. Dental practices are now being asked to deliver at least 65% of contracted units of dental activity between October and December 2021 in order to receive full income support or an increase of 5%. NHS England and NHS Improvement will keep activity thresholds under review in line with potential infection prevention requirement revisions.
Capacity for urgent dental care has been increased in St Helens with an additional 35 urgent care appointments available each week. Across the North West, 164 urgent dental care centres have been maintained to ensure access to urgent dental treatment. Commissioning teams in the North West are working with their local dental networks to monitor overall system performance, including dental access and demand figures.