£7.8 million injection to NHS dentistry in London announced
Access to NHS dentistry has been one of the most significant issues people have raised with Healthwatch across the country over the last 18 months
Key facts:
- The NHS has announced a total of £50 million pounds funding to help to improve NHS Dentistry across the UK
- In London, there will be a total of £7,809,000 additional funding available.
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Funding will secure up to 350,000 additional dental appointments allowing people suffering from oral pain, disease, and infection to get the care they need, as services drive back to pre-pandemic levels.
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Children, people with learning disabilities, autism, or severe mental health problems, will be prioritised as part of a dentistry treatment push over the coming months, with the one-off funding available until the end of the financial year.
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Locally, NHS teams will use the funds to secure increase care capacity amongst local dentists already operating to help patients suffering from oral ill-health.
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Dentists involved in the scheme will be paid more than a third on top of their normal sessional fee for delivering this care outside of core hours, such as early morning and weekend work.
There still remains deeper and more systemic challenges in the dental sector that have been laid bare over the last two years, but we need to build from this and start to get the nation’s oral health back on track after this dreadful pandemic.
