Exclusive:
The Mirror’s campaign to give Dentists for All, with the British Dental Association, is now backed by 257,000 people, and the huge petition will be handed in at Downing Street next week
A petition for the Mirror’s campaign to save NHS dentistry has hit a quarter of a million signatures.
The Mirror ’s Dentists for All campaign is now backed by 257,000 people who have signed up and the petition will be handed in at Downing Street next week. The campaign has been nominated for three national journalism awards after shining the spotlight on an NHS issue that affects many but had been ignored for years as the oral health of the nation worsened. It revealed 96% of dentists are not taking on new adult NHS patients and told horror stories of people ripping out their own teeth and going into debt to travel abroad for private treatment.
Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care, said: “As the Mirror’s Dentist for All campaign has shown, NHS dentistry is broken after years of neglect, and has failed patients and staff for far too long. We’ve heard deeply disturbing accounts of desperate patients being forced to take matters into their own hands because they were unable to get an appointment.”
Our campaign, in partnership with the British Dental Association, is demanding a return to universal access.
BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: “For every signature on this petition there are dozens for whom NHS dentistry has effectively ceased to exist. Labour pledged to save this service. Deeds need to match words.”
The online petition, hosted by the 38Degrees campaigning platform, demands properly funded NHS dentistry, scrapping the failed NHS payment contracts and rebuilding of the service with prevention at its heart.
Matthew McGregor, chief executive at 38 Degrees, said: “NHS dentistry is utterly broken – and everyone knows it. Whether it’s being unable to get a dentist at all, or being forced to go private and pay through the nose for treatment, the quarter of a million people who signed this petition, and millions more, have had enough.
Sign our petition to save NHS dentistry and make it fit for the 21st century
“There’s no doubt the Government inherited a dentistry mess – but at the election they also promised to fix it. Health Secretary Wes Streeting needs to treat this like the crisis it is and move urgently to solve the deep rooted issues dentistry in this country faces, and put millions of dental patients quite literally out of their misery.”
The overall NHS dentistry budget for England has remained at around £3 billion for a decade but has seen a £1 billion real terms cut over this period due to inflation. It has become increasingly made up of the contribution from patient charges which have gone up by 45% in the last decade.
Our campaign sparked a huge response from readers who reported yanking out their own teeth, living on painkillers, driving 200 miles for an NHS dentist or travelling abroad to places as far away as India for cheaper private treatment.
A Mirror investigation recently revealed Britain’s biggest dentistry business is raking in tens of millions of pounds in profit while its NHS work shrinks.
Labour has promised to quickly free up 700,000 new emergency dental appointments as well as tackle the thorny issue of reform of the NHS dental contract.
Stephen Kinnock added: “This government is committed to rebuilding dentistry, but it will take time. We will start with an extra 700,000 urgent dentistry appointments to help those who need it most, and reform the dental contract to encourage more dentists to offer NHS services to patients.”
Save NHS Dentistry petition
Sign our petition to save NHS dentistry and make it fit for the 21st century
Our 3 demands
Everyone should have access to an NHS dentist
More than 12 million people were unable to access NHS dental care last year – more than 1 in 4 adults in England. At the same time 90% of dental practices are no longer accepting new NHS adult patients. Data from the House of Commons Library showed 40% of children didn’t have their recommended annual check-up last year.
Restore funding for dental services and recruit more NHS dentists
The UK spends the smallest proportion of its heath budget on dental care of any European nation. Government spending on dental services in England was cut by a quarter in real terms between 2010 and 2020. The number of NHS dentists is down by more than 500 to 24,151 since the pandemic.
Change the contracts
A Parliamentary report by the Health Select Committee has branded the current NHS dentists’ contracts as “not fit for purpose” and described the state of the service as “unacceptable in the 21st century”. The system effectively sets quotas on the maximum number of NHS patients a dentist can see as it caps the number of procedures they can perform each year. Dentists also get paid the same for delivering three or 20 fillings, often leaving them out of pocket. The system should be changed so it enables dentists to treat on the basis of patient need.
Have you had to resort to drastic measures because you couldn’t access an NHS dentist? Are you a parent struggling to get an appointment for a child? Email [email protected] or call 0800 282591