Speaking during Health and Social Care questions in Parliament, James Wild MP asked the Minister for Care to confirm whether the Government will enable the Office for Students to allocate new dental training places in the East of England by 2026 to help address the region’s NHS dentist shortage.
Norfolk’s dental crisis is well-documented, with Healthwatch Norfolk reporting that 60% of patients seeking NHS dental care in the past two years were unable to get an appointment.
James has therefore long supported the establishment of a dental school at the University of East Anglia (UEA) to help alleviate local pressures and has raised the issue consistently both locally and in Parliament.
Speaking in Parliament, James Wild MP said:
There is an urgent need for dental training in Norfolk, so can the Minister confirm that the Government will enable the Office for Students to allocate new dental training places in the East of England to start in 2026?
The Minister for Care, Stephen Kinnock MP, replied:
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question. I have met hon. Members from the area and made it clear that in principle we support any creation of new teaching capacity for dentistry.
What I have also set out is that, before we can give an instruction to the Office for Students to go ahead with that work, we have to have the settlement of the comprehensive spending review, so we know what our financial envelope is. We will not have that until June, but certainly we will be looking at that as and when we know whether the funding will be available.
