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Mobile dentist vans to visit Northamptonshire's under-served areas

AnnaLouise Walter/BBC Blue and white lorry with "Dentaid" signAnnaLouise Walter/BBC
Dentistry buses operated by a charity have already been seen in places like Cornwall, Kent and Suffolk

Mobile dental vans are to be used in remote areas of a county to improve access to dentistry.

The Government has announced that the vans will be deployed in several areas, including Northamptonshire.

It is part of a "dental recovery plan" which also includes incentive payments for new dentists.

The junior health minister and South Northants MP Andrea Leadsom said: "We aim to make sure everyone needing NHS dentistry will be able to access it."

In anticipation of the announcement of the plan, the Northampton South MP Andrew Lewer raised the issue of access to dentistry during Prime Minister's Questions this week.

He said: "People in Northampton South are desperately short of NHS dental provision - indeed, in Duston, there is now none at all.

"Can the Prime Minister guarantee my residents improvements within months, not years?"

Northampton South MP Andrew Lewer speaking in the House of Commons
The Northampton South MP Andrew Lewer spoke in Prime Minister's Questions to ask how quickly improvements would take place

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the recovery plan would ensure NHS dental care would be faster, simpler and fairer for patients and staff, although he did not commit to a timescale.

Shortly afterwards, the Health Secretary Victoria Atkins announced that the plan would include 15 mobile dental vans travelling to isolated under-served communities.

She said the vans would be "staffed by NHS dentists [and] they will offer check-ups and simple treatments like fillings."

Department of Health A mobile dentist van in CornwallDepartment of Health
A mobile dentistry van visited five harbours in Cornwall and treated 100 fishermen and their families

Ms Atkins said a similar mobile project had already worked successfully in Cornwall.

Other measures included offering dentists financial incentives to take on new patients, and giving "golden hellos" worth £20,000 to dentists who will work in poorly served communities.

Practitioners will also be offered a "new patient payment" of between £15 and £50 if they take on patients who have not seen a dentist for two years or more.

South Northamptonshire MP Andrea Leadsom
Andrea Leadsom MP said the plan would encourage more dentists to work in areas of England that are currently under-served

Ms Leadsom said: "We aim to make sure everyone needing NHS dentistry will be able to access it.

"We are building capacity for the long term, supporting our excellent dental staff to work at the top of their training, and encouraging more hard-working dentists to those areas of England that are currently under-served."

Shawn Charlwood, chairman of the British Dental Association's General Dental Practice Committee, said: "This recovery plan is not worthy of the title.

"It won't halt the exodus from the workforce or offer hope to millions struggling to access care."

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