East Yorkshire MP, Sir Greg Knight, is urging the Government to boost NHS dentistry locally and he is part of a campaign for a new NHS Dental School at the University of Hull, as part of the Hull and York Medical School, which would cover Hull, York and the East Riding.
Sir Greg, a Conservative, has met the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health, Neil O’Brien MP, to discuss the issue, along with Labour MP’s Diana Johnson (Hull North), Rachael Maskell (York Central) and Emma Hardy (Hull West and Hessle), to jointly press the case for a local dental training school. Sir Greg said the Minister accepted there was a need to increase NHS dentists locally and the Minister revealed that he was looking at several options to boost dental provision across the East Riding, with a decision expected to be made this summer.
Sir Greg said “If we train dentists locally then there is a good chance they will stay in the area to serve the local community in which they are based when they qualify, and the Minister accepted the argument that it would assist with local recruitment.
“This is an all-party campaign and I am hopeful that we will see action soon which will provide more NHS dentistry locally.”
This is the third time Sir Greg has seen ministers on the issue of the shortage of local NHS dental provision. Earlier this year Sir Greg had talks with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State over the current lack of NHS dental services in Bridlington and Driffield, resulting in the minister launching a review into what needed to be done to boost the number of NHS dentists across the region.
