Shropshire MP demands dental rescue plan as funding goes unspent despite access issues
Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has called for a dental rescue plan as new figures revealed more than £1 million of dental funding went unspent in Shropshire despite patients across the county being unable to access NHS treatment.
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New data shows that 99.3 per cent of new patients in the Midlands have been unsuccessful in trying to access NHS treatment.
The Office for National Statistics’ report: Experiences of NHS healthcare services in England, shows 99.3 per cent of those in the region who do not have a dentist and tried to access NHS dental care were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile data obtained by the British Dental Association shows that a total of £1,076,580 of funding went unspent by NHS dental practices in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin in 2022/23 – enough money to fund tens of thousands of courses of treatment.
Practices in the ICB had an average of £13,291 clawed back per practice in the financial year, the latest period for which data is available. This is not because of a lack of demand but largely due to dental practices’ inability to recruit, a long-running problem in Shropshire where even large ‘golden handshake’ offers have failed to attract dentists.
