PATIENTS' ACCESS TO DENTISTS

Motion Text

That this House recognises the current anomaly regarding the public's rights of access to NHS dental care and dentists' right to refuse patients; believes that this situation will be resolved by increasing the number of dental care providers and, crucially, retaining those currently working within the NHS; acknowledges that many dental practitioners are concerned that the new contract will replace one treadmill with another treadmill, namely a fee per item system will be replaced by a units of dental activity system; and calls on the Government to introduce a contract which does not expect practitioners to work under unreasonable time pressures, which would greatly help to improve current problems of access.