To ask the Minister of Health for his assessment of the future impact on (i) patients; and (ii) the NHS, of the reduction in the number of people able to be seen by dentists under current regulations.

Over the last year, the pandemic has resulted in fewer patients/clients being seen, when compared to the previous year, for almost all parts of the health and social care system. The impact on dental care, whether that is provided by family dentists, community dentists or dentist working in hospitals has been dramatic. Currently, dental activity among family dentists is around 40% of that seen prior to the pandemic.

This reduction in patient throughput has meant that dentists have had to focus on those patients with the highest levels of clinical need. The prioritisation process has worked well and the vast majority of those patients with urgent dental care needs have been seen in a timely way. However, there are large numbers of patients with lower grade dental problems who have not been seen. It is important that practitioners turn their attention to these patients and to those requiring routine care once those with urgent needs have received the care they need.

The Department's Financial Support Scheme (FSS) for general dental practitioners has been designed to ensure that dentists are delivering as much dental care as they are safely able to provide. In addition to the FSS, I have recently approved £1.5 million for a general dental practice grant scheme to allow dentists to purchase equipment or make changes to their practices that would allow greater numbers of patients to be seen.

Among the impacts on the health service of the current infection control measures has been an increase in waiting lists for hospital dental care. However, one of the silver linings of the pandemic has been increased cooperation between different dental teams and the development of innovative approaches to care. There are a number of ongoing dental projects looking at alternative patient pathways and new types of treatment that will help patients on waiting lists to be seen quicker than they would be with the standard approaches.

I trust that the above is helpful.