Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce waiting times on and increase the capacity of the national dental helpline number.

In order to ensure patients are given appropriate advice and support, the NHS 111 service uses a nationally agreed clinical algorithm which can refer patients to the most appropriate service to meet their needs, for example, a dental practice or urgent treatment centre.

Additional urgent care provision is commissioned locally and NHS England works across each region to ensure these local services are accessible via NHS 111. This allows patients to be directed to a wider range of services in their area where these are available.

Increasing the NHS 111 call handling provision ahead of winter continues, with recruitment and training of staff to meet the growing demands on the service as a whole.