NHS dentistry in Northumberland
As part of our work on NHS dentistry services in Northumberland, we, along with 29 other Local Healthwatch, made a formal submission to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee. The committee has now published the submissions.
The Chair of the Committee, Conservative MP Steve Brine, was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 PM programme on 6 March. The item is at 38 minutes in, with reference to Local Healthwatch just after 42 minutes.
In the interview Mr Brine says “We’ve had hundreds of pieces of written evidence from trade bodies, professionals, charities, people working in the profession, but quite a lot of it has been from local Healthwatch and from patients themselves, telling some pretty painful stories of…DIY dentistry…home tooth extractions, people tying shoelaces to teeth…”
At the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 7 March, our Project Coordinator Derry Nugent, urged local elected members to encourage their residents to contact us for issues such as this, which can only be fixed at national level.
NHS dentistry in Northumberland continues to be difficult to access, especially in the Berwick area. If you are in pain and need to see a dentist urgently, please call NHS 111.
Please keep sharing your experiences of NHS dental care, so that we can keep making sure these are heard by those paying for services.
