In 1997, the Government inherited a situation where two dental colleges had been closed and a new contract had been introduced for dentists, which was resented and led to many dentists abandoning the NHS. The Labour Government has taken action by reversing the decline in funding. In July 2004, the Government announced an extra £368m for improving dental services in England. For this financial year (2005/06) funding for NHS dentistry in England is set to increase further by over 19% compared with spending in 2003/04.

In July 2004, the Government also announced they would recruit the equivalent of 1,000 new dentists by October 2005, including from overseas.  The UK exceeded this goal with 1,453 new dentists recruited. Alongside this we are funding 170 extra training places for dentists in England - a 25 per cent increase compared with 2004/5. The total number of primary care dentists has increased from 16,700 in 1997 to 20,200 by the end of April 2005.

The Government has also successfully piloted new ways of working that are bringing improvements for patients and dentists alike. Personal Dental Services (PDS) contracts between Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and individual dental practices are improving care for NHS patients.  Over 5,800 dentists in over 2,100 dental practices have now opted to work under these new arrangements.

Many dentists are taking up the new way of working because it helps them provide better care for patients and removes them from the ‘treadmill’ of treating patients on a fee for service basis. All the evidence from piloting is that it will free up significant capacity within the dental practice that can be used to spend more time with patients, adopt a more preventative approach, and better manage workload.

In December 2005, I had the great pleasure of opening a new Dental Practice on Mitcham Lane, which is happy to take on new NHS patients (a picture from the opening is here). The Government is delivering high quality NHS Dental services in Tooting and this is represents just one example of that success. I also raised the issue of NHS dentistry in a recent oral question to the Minister of State for Health which is here.

There is still more to be done, but the training of new dentists will take time. I will continue to support the Government’s investment in NHS dental services and will also be working with Wandsworth PCT to ensure that benefits to patients are delivered.