NHS dental patients at Chatsworth House Dental Clinic, in Harrogate, will be offered treatment at alternative NHS practices next month.
Chatsworth House, on King’s Road, announced in September it would stop providing NHS treatments from December 1.
The move heightened concerns about the lack of access to NHS dentistry in the Harrogate district.
It prompted Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, to seek assurances from the Integrated Care Board for Humber and North Yorkshire that local NHS provision would be expanded.
Mr Jones said today he had been told any patient on Chatsworth House’s roll in the last two years will be sent a letter by the NHS next month explaining where the new provision will be available.
Subject to the terms and conditions of their contract, any former NHS patient who has signed up for private services with Chatsworth House can apply to a new provider.
Mr Jones said:
“This is good news for NHS patients at Chatsworth House. It was important that the cash provided for NHS dental activity at Chatsworth House remained invested in Harrogate NHS dentistry. I am grateful to the ICB for ensuring this is the case.”
Mr Jones said more than 50 Chatsworth House patients had contacted him.
The ICB letter to Mr Jones said:
“We have written to eligible dental providers in Harrogate to invite them to submit an expression of interest in taking on more dental activity. This EOI went out week commencing 30 October and providers have been given two weeks in which to respond.
“Once EOIs are received, officers at the ICB will then consider all EOIs in order to allocate the dental activity. As soon as new providers are confirmed, the ICB will ensure that patients from Chatsworth House are written to, explaining where they may be able to find an alternative dentist.”
Mr Jones added he had “longer term aspirations for dentistry in our area:, adding:
“I want to see a centre of dental excellence for North Yorkshire based in Harrogate. This will train the next generation of NHS dentists and could help provide more capacity locally. I have also met two dentists locally who are looking to expand their practices and put them in touch with people in the NHS who can help with that. These discussions look very positive.
A review of NHS dentistry in August 2021 also found that there was just one NHS dentist practice per 10,000 people in the Harrogate district.
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NHS dentistry provision was discussed at a meeting yesterday between Andrew Jones, the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, and Stephen Eames, the chief executive of the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
The issue was highlighted recently by the announcement that Chatsworth House dental practice on King’s Road in Harrogate was closing to NHS patients from December 1.
The meeting was a follow-up from a briefing this month which the ICB – a collaboration of health and care organisations tasked with improving the health and wellbeing of people in the region – arranged for all Humber and North Yorkshire MPs.
Mr Jones said:
“We have a short-term issue – one that I raised at Prime Minister’s Questions – about what happens when a practice suddenly closes to NHS patients as has happened here. We also have a medium-term issue about increasing NHS dentistry capacity. Mr Eames and I discussed both these issues.”
Chatsworth House Dental Clinic
The ICB told Mr Jones it is planning to redistribute the funding given to Chatsworth House to other local practices so that they can take on more patients. Patients affected will be contacted directly by the ICB to explain where their new practice will be.
According to a government briefing published in April 2023, total funding for NHS dental services in England fell by 8% in real terms between 2010 and 2022.
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The crisis in NHS dental provision was highlighted by a YouGov poll in March. The survey found that more than a quarter of the UK population (27%) have not seen a dentist within the last two years, and one in five people (22%) are currently not even registered with a dentist.
Of those, 37% said it was because they couldn’t find an NHS dentist, and 23% said it was because they couldn’t afford to pay for treatment. One in 10 admitted to attempting their own dental work.
To help address the problem, the ICB is looking to increase NHS dental capacity locally through the rapid launch ‘Centres of Dental Development’, which are intended to support, develop and retain the dental workforce across the Humber and North Yorkshire.
Mr Jones said:
“It is good that the ICB are looking at the long-term sustainability of our dental service. This is a positive and constructive approach and I have asked that Harrogate, which is the largest town in North Yorkshire, will be host to one of these new centres.
“Such a facility would place front and centre significant dental provision for our area. It could educate a new generation of local dentists. To have such a centre in Harrogate would be a huge boon to our area.
“I look forward to receiving more details from the ICB and feel hopeful that my request for a Centre of Dental Development in Harrogate will be successful.”