Hadfield Dental Care Limited have announced that they are unable to fulfil their NHS contract and have made the decision to move the practice forward privately. This is primarily due to ongoing difficulties the practice has had with recruitment and retention of staff.

Robert Largan MP has expressed his disappointment at this situation and has written to both NHS England and the Derbyshire Integrated Care Board, in particular, to try and safeguard NHS dentistry for children. In February last year Mr Largan gave a speech on NHS Dentistry and more recently he wrote an article specifically on Goyt Valley and Bamford Practices

At the start of 2022, the Government provided £50 million funding across England to support the delivery of 350,000 additional dental appointments. This funding was targeted towards urgent care, with children, people with learning disabilities, autism or severe mental health problems prioritised.

Over several months, the Government has been working with the dental profession to further reduce barriers to patients accessing NHS dentists.

This includes changing the way dentists are paid for treatments like root canal, improving communication with patients and making it easier to recruit overseas dentists.

These reforms will allow the best performing dental practices to see more patients and ensure better use of other dental professionals such as dental therapists, hygienists and nurses. Changes will also see dentists rewarded more fairly for complex care.

Many dentists also have serious concerns about the NHS contracts drawn up in 2008. Under the terms of these contracts, there is little incentive to take on new NHS patients. Reforms to the dental contract are being considered, through pilot schemes which are ongoing, and relate to new ways of providing NHS dental care through an emphasis on preventing future dental disease.

Robert Largan, MP for High Peak, commented:

“I am extremely disappointed by the announcement that Hadfield Dental Care Limited are going private. This is a result of serious structural failures within NHS dentistry, which I have been raising in Parliament for some time now.

“A big part of the problem is that there are simply not enough NHS dentists. We need a serious drive to improve both the recruitment and the retention of dentists. Thinking about the long-term, the Government are sensibly setting up new centres of dental development to train more dentists, focused on areas where there are shortages. But in the short term, we need to look again at the recognition of overseas dental qualifications, to allow high-quality dentists from other countries to come to the UK and help increase capacity.

“In terms of the immediate situation at Hadfield Dental Care Limited, I have already written to both NHS England and the Derbyshire Integrated Care Board, in particular, to try and safeguard NHS dentistry for children. I will keep working with local dentists, the local NHS and making the case for urgent reform in Parliament.”