Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones today urged the Prime Minister to tackle the “immediate strain” facing local people trying to access NHS dentists.

Concerns about a shortage of NHS dentists in Harrogate were heightened last week when Chatsworth House Dental Clinic, on King’s Road, said it will stop treating NHS patients at the end of the year.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions today, Mr Jones said he and fellow North Yorkshire MPs met with the local integrated care board last week to discuss ways of improving dentistry provision. He added:

“But when surgeries suddenly close to NHS patients without notice as one in Harrogate did very recently, an immediate strain is put on local provision.

“Will the Prime Minister look at what can be done in these circumstances to ensure that no one is left without access to an NHS dentist?”

Mr Sunak pledged to “look into this issue” and said Mr Jones would be “reassured” to know the government was investing £3 billion a year into dentistry. He added there were no geographical restrictions on which dentists people could attend.

‘Sitting on the sidelines’

Tom Gordon with Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrats’ health spokesperson.

The man who hopes to succeed Mr Jones as Harrogate and Knaresborough MP at the next election accused his rival of “sitting on the sidelines” over dentistry.

Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, said he was “pleased that after 13 years Andrew Jones has finally bowed to pressure and asked a question in Parliament about the dentist crisis affecting local residents”, adding:

“In the last six months, the Lib Dems have been increasing the pressure on him to do this. We have set up a dentists survey, arranged a meeting with the Lib Dem shadow health minister and made sure that questions were asked in Parliament about this issue.

“We’ve heard awful stories about how local people have been putting up with pain as they can’t afford to see a dentist. It shouldn’t have required a concerted campaign to make our MP act.”

“We’re determined to keep on fighting for the cash that will re-establish NHS dentistry in our area. We hope Andrew Jones will join us in this fight rather than sitting on the sidelines as he has done over this and many other issues for the last 13 years.”

Following his meeting with Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board last week, Mr Jones said:

“Dental services have been recovering but there is much more progress to be made.

“It is important that action is taken swiftly to expand the NHS dental provision in our area.”

Read more:

• Station Gateway: Andrew Jones calls for funding to be switched to ‘other projects’
• Local politicians raise concern over lack of Harrogate and Knaresborough NHS dentistry
• Harrogate NHS dentist to move to ‘membership only’ patient scheme

Access to NHS dentists across North Yorkshire has got worse and is “unacceptable”, according to one of the county’s Conservative MPs.

Kevin Hollinrake, who represents Thirsk and Malton, told a debate in Parliament this week that there has been “simply no availability” for dentists during his seven years as a MP.

Mr Hollinrake said one of his first acts as an MP was to raise the issue with the then Minister for Dentistry, Alistair Burt, in 2015.

However, now he says the issue has got worse and that across North Yorkshire there is no availability on waiting lists.

He told a Westminster Hall debate on access to NHS dentistry on Thursday that since 2015 the issue has “actually got a lot worse”. He said:

“This morning I checked across North Yorkshire—which is larger than my constituency—and there is simply no availability on NHS waiting lists.

“It has been like that for most of the seven years I have been in Parliament. The pity is that I have dentists who will accept NHS patients, but they just cannot get the units of dental activity.

“There is a real impasse between the issues and our honesty in saying whether NHS dentistry treatment is available in our constituencies.”

Read more:

• Investigation: ‘Shocking’ waits for NHS dentists in Harrogate district
• Watchdog report: Just one NHS dentist per 10,000 people in Harrogate district

Mr Hollinrake added that he often receives emails from constituents complaining of toothache and having to pay for private treatment despite the fact that they cannot afford it.

He said:

“This is simply unacceptable”.

Acute problem of NHS dentists

Last year, the Stray Ferret revealed that just two Harrogate district NHS dentists were accepting patients but both had a waiting list of at least two-and-a-half years.

The investigation revealed how acute the problem of dental care is for people on low incomes in the district, with one councillor describing the situation as “shocking”.

Meanwhile, a review of NHS dentistry published in August 2021 found that found there was just one NHS dentist practice per 10,000 people in the district.

An investigation by the Stray Ferret has found that just two NHS dentists in the Harrogate district are accepting new patients — and both have a waiting time of at least two-and-a-half years.

Our investigation reveals how acute the problem of dental care is for people on low incomes in the district.

John Ennis, who chairs North Yorkshire County Council‘s scrutiny of health committee, described our findings as “shocking”.

We looked into the availability of free NHS services at the 18 Harrogate district dental practices listed on the NHS website.

Many have not updated their information for years. But they all fall into one or three categories: they have a long waiting list; they have such a long waiting list that they are not taking on new patients; or they no longer hold an NHS contract.

We found of the 18 only MyDentist in Knaresborough and AW Jones Dental Practice in Boroughbridge are taking patients — with wait times of two and a half years and three years respectively.

Read more:

• Harrogate NHS dental patients ‘not told’ about proposed closure
• Housing Investigation: infrastructure at breaking point?

The situation looks like it will get worse: Chatsworth House Dental Centre, one of the few dentists in the area providing NHS services, is proposing to close and move its NHS patients to a dental practice in Starbeck. Chatsworth House has not yet made a formal approach to the NHS but it has revealed its plans in letters to patients.

John Ennis, a Conservative councillor who represents Harrogate Stray on North Yorkshire County Council, and chair’s the council’s scrutiny of health committee, told the Stray Ferret that Harrogate and Knaresborough are some of the worst affected areas in the county. He added:

“I have been on the scrutiny of health committee for the last seven years and it has been an issue bubbling along for all of that time.

“Coronavirus has made the issue worse. Between June and December last year the NHS only expected dentists to carry out 20% of their usual appointments.

“That should increase to 45% soon but that is still too low. Dentists do have to clean between patients, given the nature of their work, so that has created delays.

“Harrogate and Knaresborough has a particular problem. While I am not entirely surprised by your findings, I do think that those delays are shocking.

“We have just started to investigate the provision of NHS dentists in North Yorkshire. I am currently trying to gather as much information as I can.

“I will then prepare a report and share my findings at the next committee meeting in June.”

Cllr Ennis added the county council only has power to scrutinise when a practice proposes a closure. He suggested the committee would have greater powers if the proposed reorganisation of the NHS devolved decisions on NHS dentistry to a more local level.

National bodies raise concerns about NHS dentists

The provision of NHS dentists has been a contentious local and national issue for some time.

Healthwatch England, the national watchdog, has said the coronavirus pandemic has stretched services to crisis point and even forced some patients to attempt their own treatments.

Healthwatch England and the British Dental Association (BDA) have both recently published damning reports into NHS dentistry.

The BDA found in October that NHS dentist treatments were at a quarter of the level prior to the coronavirus pandemic. It also found that dentists face an uphill struggle to catch up because they missed more than 14 million appointments in 2020 than the previous year.

A Healthwatch England survey of 1,300 people found that 73% said it was difficult to access help and support when they needed it. Many were only offered private treatment.

The accompanying report also suggested that the scarcity of information about whether dentists were taking NHS patients was ‘a real problem and is masking a potentially bigger issue’.