Exclusive:
The Mirror’s campaign to give Dentists for All, with the British Dental Association, is now backed by 257,000 people, and the huge petition will be handed in at Downing Street next week
A petition for the Mirror’s campaign to save NHS dentistry has hit a quarter of a million signatures.
The Mirror ’s Dentists for All campaign is now backed by 257,000 people who have signed up and the petition will be handed in at Downing Street next week. The campaign has been nominated for three national journalism awards after shining the spotlight on an NHS issue that affects many but had been ignored for years as the oral health of the nation worsened. It revealed 96% of dentists are not taking on new adult NHS patients and told horror stories of people ripping out their own teeth and going into debt to travel abroad for private treatment.
Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care, said: “As the Mirror’s Dentist for All campaign has shown, NHS dentistry is broken after years of neglect, and has failed patients and staff for far too long. We’ve heard deeply disturbing accounts of desperate patients being forced to take matters into their own hands because they were unable to get an appointment.”
Our campaign, in partnership with the British Dental Association, is demanding a return to universal access.
BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: “For every signature on this petition there are dozens for whom NHS dentistry has effectively ceased to exist. Labour pledged to save this service. Deeds need to match words.”
The online petition, hosted by the 38Degrees campaigning platform, demands properly funded NHS dentistry, scrapping the failed NHS payment contracts and rebuilding of the service with prevention at its heart.
Matthew McGregor, chief executive at 38 Degrees, said: “NHS dentistry is utterly broken – and everyone knows it. Whether it’s being unable to get a dentist at all, or being forced to go private and pay through the nose for treatment, the quarter of a million people who signed this petition, and millions more, have had enough.
Sign our petition to save NHS dentistry and make it fit for the 21st century
“There’s no doubt the Government inherited a dentistry mess – but at the election they also promised to fix it. Health Secretary Wes Streeting needs to treat this like the crisis it is and move urgently to solve the deep rooted issues dentistry in this country faces, and put millions of dental patients quite literally out of their misery.”
The overall NHS dentistry budget for England has remained at around £3 billion for a decade but has seen a £1 billion real terms cut over this period due to inflation. It has become increasingly made up of the contribution from patient charges which have gone up by 45% in the last decade.
Our campaign sparked a huge response from readers who reported yanking out their own teeth, living on painkillers, driving 200 miles for an NHS dentist or travelling abroad to places as far away as India for cheaper private treatment.
A Mirror investigation recently revealed Britain’s biggest dentistry business is raking in tens of millions of pounds in profit while its NHS work shrinks.
Labour has promised to quickly free up 700,000 new emergency dental appointments as well as tackle the thorny issue of reform of the NHS dental contract.
Stephen Kinnock added: “This government is committed to rebuilding dentistry, but it will take time. We will start with an extra 700,000 urgent dentistry appointments to help those who need it most, and reform the dental contract to encourage more dentists to offer NHS services to patients.”
