Rowen Forces Minister to Admit Numbers Registered with an NHS Dentist have fallen!

Local Rochdale MP Paul Rowen yesterday forced Minister for Health, Rosie Winterton to admit that the Rochdale dentist crisis has deepened since Labour came to power.

Paul asked the Minister why NHS dental registrations had fallen by a third in the last eight years, and how she could regard this as progress.

Mrs Winterton replied, "Of course that is not progress, and it is not good that the number of NHS places has fallen."

Speaking after the debate, Paul said, "At last the Labour Government has admitted what we all know: NHS dentistry has been a shambles under Labour. We have all seen how recently in Langley, Middleton, people - many of them from Rochdale - queued from 4am to try to get on a dentist's list.

"Labour has had eight years in power and access to NHS dentists is worse than ever. Rochdale needs real action to make sure that enough dentists are trained and that they are given enough support if they choose to work in the NHS. Instead Labour wants to fiddle round the edges.

"I am seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister as I am concerned that the new dental contract, which comes into effect next April, will do nothing to enable the Rochdale PCT to recruit more dentists."

The text of the question as reported in Hansard follows.

Paul Rowen (Rochdale) Will the Minister explain how dental registrations in Rochdale have fallen from 58 per cent. in 1997 to 38 per cent. this year? Is that progress?

Ms Winterton: Of course that is not progress, and it is not good that the number of NHS places has fallen. One reason why the decrease has occurred is that more dentists have turned to private work. We have tried to turn the situation around by working with dentists to introduce a new contract that reflects how they say that they want to work and by introducing a simpler system of patient charges to reduce bureaucracy, about which dentists have complained. We are bringing dentists back into the NHS, using international recruits and training more new dentists, which started in October. I know that the situation is far from perfect, particularly in Rochdale, where I have visited the dental access centre, and we are taking steps to turn the situation around.