City MP hits out at Government’s continued inaction at tackling Portsmouth’s ‘dental desert’

The Portsmouth South MP is calling on Ministers to ensure city residents receive the care they deserve.

It comes as a recent report by the Health and Social Care Committee describes the evidence of pain and distress due to being unable to see an NHS dentist as ‘totally unacceptable in the 21st century’.

The Committee also cited frustration that recommendations for reform made by their predecessor Committee 15 years ago have still not been implemented.

British Dental Association analysis last year revealed how this pain and distress continues to impact Portsmouth people, with only 36.4% of children seen by an NHS dentist and just 31.5% of adults.

In May 2022 The Association of Dental Groups also found that Portsmouth had the seventh lowest number of NHS dentists per 100,000 in the country, at 42.

Mr Morgan insists the Government is to blame for the chronic under-funding of the NHS and for inaction on reform of dental contracts, with the BDA citing as the cause of long-standing problems with burnout, recruitment and retention in NHS dental services.

Earlier this year a pair of new dentist practices in Portsmouth received 3,000 registration calls in five days from local residents, demonstrating the overwhelming local demand for increased services.

Mr Morgan said: “A delay of 15 years to implement reforms which could have prevented dentists quitting in their droves and improve dentist access in Portsmouth is simply not good enough.

“The Health and Social Care Committee’s report reveals once again the Conservatives cannot be trusted to fix the problem they have created through chronic underfunding and mismanagement.

“I will continue to do all I can to lobby for change so that Portsmouth people get the dental care they need, when they need it.

"The last Labour government reduced waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks and the next one will ensure patients once again get the treatment they need.”

Portsmouth’s dental crisis is nothing new. In June 2019 over 9,000 patients in the city received a letter telling them that three local practices faced imminent closure.

If they required ongoing care, they were told to visit nhs.uk to find a local practice.

The problem was this – the city no longer had a single practice that could accept new NHS patients.