As part of his campaign to improve access to NHS dentistry in North West Norfolk, James Wild MP has reiterated his support for plans for a dental training school at the UEA and called on Ministers to speed up the approval process for overseas dentists
At Health questions in the House of Commons, James underlined the importance of more training places locally and the issue with delays in authorising overseas qualified dentists to provide NHS dentistry.
The East of England is one of the only areas in the country without an undergraduate training facility which means there are not dentists training locally who would then be more likely to stay and work in the area. Currently the closest dental schools are in London or Birmingham. The UEA is currently going through approvals with the General Dental Council ahead of the Office for Students opening bids for new training place.
It also takes too long to approve new dentists to get onto the Dental Performers List which is needed to practice as NHS dentists. Without this once a dentist has General Dental Council registration they can practice privately, but not for NHS. This has caused issues for local practices which James has assisted with.
Separately, James has been pushing for the government to follow the previous government’s plans to introduce a provisional overseas registration scheme for dentists from overseas who are yet to received GDC accreditation. This would allow them to work if supervised by a dentist with GDC approval.
Speaking in Parliament, James said:
"Having training locally at the University of East Anglia is important for my constituents, but in the short term, what steps is the Minister taking to speed up the process by which dentists get on the dental performers list, so that they can work in the NHS and not just privately? Is he also considering bringing in a provisional overseas registration scheme?"
Stephen Kinnock MP, Minister of State for Care said in response:
"We are looking at provisional registration. We are very open to the idea of a dental training school at the University of East Anglia. We need to ensure that we push on the full spectrum of all these measures, because there is a crisis in NHS dentistry and we need to get on and fix it."
Improving access to dentists is a priority for James and he recently met the Norfolk and Waveney NHS to push for more capacity locally and access to emergency appointments. He successfully campaigned for a new practice in Lynn which has delivered thousands of NHS appointments since it opened in 2022.
