MP says county risks being NHS 'dental desert'

An MP has claimed Oxfordshire is at risk of becoming a "desert" for NHS dental care.

Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, who represents Oxford West and Abingdon, said the system was in a "dire" state.

She cited a Freedom of Information request from her party that she said showed a 38% rise in people using A&E for dental care at Oxford University Hospitals trust compared to last year.

The government said it was "making progress to boost NHS dental services".

The issue was raised by Ms Moran in the House of Commons last week when she asked what was being done to improve the situation.

"An Oxford resident wrote to me saying that when his NHS practice closed, he rang a dozen others across the county," she said.

"Each one said they were offering NHS services but, in fact, they were not - they were only offering private care. In this cost of living crisis, people simply cannot afford that."

Health Minister Dame Andrea Leadsom responded that she was "incredibly sympathetic" to the concerns, that the situation was improving, and "a big package of dental recovery plan reforms" was on the way.

However, Ms Moran said the government had been promising a "so-called recovery plan" since April 2023 and parts of Oxfordshire were "at risk of becoming dental deserts".

One resident told BBC Radio Oxford it was "basically impossible" to get an NHS appointment in the county, while the British Dental Association demanded "more urgency" from the government.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We are making progress to boost NHS dental services, with 23% more courses of treatment delivered last year compared to the previous year and 1.7 million more adults and 800,000 more children receiving NHS dental care."

The spokesperson added it funded more than £3bn of NHS dentistry annually and had announced plans to increase dental training places by 40%.

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