Fall in Adults seeing Dentist shows Contract crisis - Lamb

9.31.09pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 25th Jun 2007

The number of adults seen by an NHS dentist has fallen by a total of 63,000 throughout England over the past year, despite the implementation of a new NHS dentistry contract.

There are dramatic variations in the figures, with areas such as the East Midlands and London seeing drops of 45,000 and 43,000 respectively, whilst other areas have seen small increases.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb MP said:

"The Government must accept that the new dental contract is in crisis. Dentists are becoming disillusioned and there are serious gaps in provision.

"The new contracts were supposed to significantly improve access to NHS dentistry, but instead visits have fallen. There must be an urgent review of what is going wrong.

"It has been seven years since the Prime Minister promised access to an NHS dentist for everyone. His legacy is an abject failure to meet this commitment."