Having raised provision for NHS dental services in Lincolnshire in Parliament and directly in meetings with Ministers, I welcome the Government’s new NHS Dental Recovery Plan, delivering 2.5 million additional NHS dental appointments over the next year to help people get the care they need.
Broken down into Prevention, Recovery and Longer Term Reform - here’s a summary
1. Rolling out dental vans to the most in need rural and coastal areas to carry out emergency and routine work. The NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board will be one of the areas prioritised for these vans.
2. Lifting the minimum value of activity by 22% from £23 to £28 to pay NHS dentists more.
3. Incentivising dentists to work in rural or underserved areas with one-off payments of up to £20,000.
4. Paying dentists a bonus of up to £50 for each new patient they take on who haven’t see a dentist for 2 years.
5. Launching the ‘Smile for Life’ programme to assist new parents on prevention and how to reduce dental decay in children.
6. Increasing the number of dentistry training places by 40% by 2031/32 in the NHS LTP.
7. Expanding the water fluoridation programme subject to consultation.
I am pleased that rural areas such as Lincolnshire will be prioritised in these plans and I will continue to work with the Government on delivering improved NHS dental services in the area.
