UEA dentistry school plans raised with health minister

Plans for a new dentistry school to help plug the shortage in dentists are to be raised with the health minister.

Conservative MP Jerome Mayhew wants a training school in Norfolk to be set up to boost the numbers of local dentists.

He is debating the matter in parliament on Tuesday evening with the new health minister, Will Quince.

Mr Mayhew said: "We don't have the ability to train and retain dentists in Norfolk - if you don't have facilities, you're not going to get the staff."

The MP for Broadland, together with Conservative North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker, met with NHS and government officials this summer about the proposal for the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich.

He said it could help the county reach the national average figure of 54 dentists per 100,000 of the population.

"If you look at the figures for Norfolk and Waveney - which is our clinical commissioning group - we have 38 dentists of any description practising per 100,000 of the population," said Mr Mayhew.

"We're struggling to get dentists to locate and have their careers in Norfolk.

"There are 10 training centres around the country and not a single one of them is in the east of England."

Mr Mayhew said the nearest dentistry schools were in London and Birmingham - and he hoped Norfolk could follow in the footsteps of Devon, as it was geographically similar, and learn from its experience with the UEA.

He said Devon now had 49 dentists for every 100,000 people after its dentistry school opened in 2007.

"Year after year doctors who qualify from the UEA, they stay in Norfolk - over 40% of them stay and have their first jobs in Norfolk," said Mr Mayhew.

"You can see what a direct impact it has - having a medical school - for improving the number of doctors we have in the county and the same should work - and has worked elsewhere - for having a dental school."

The UEA was funding and working on a business case for the dentistry facility, with its medical school already having appropriate facilities and some dental training contracts with the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

Prof Charles ffrench-Constant, head of the medical school, said it would cost about £20m to set up.

"We know if we bring a dental school in, we can significantly increase the flow of dentists into the region," he said.

"The effect will be quite immediate because as part of a dental school, we'll have to recruit trainers and those will be attractive positions, mixing clinical practice, teaching and research.

"There will be an immediate increase in the number of dentists coming into the region, as well as the students we train over the longer term."

In 2006 the government rejected a plan for a dentistry school at the UEA.

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