As Government introduces new dentists, MPs lobby for new dental school in the south.

5.51.16pm GMT Wed 9th Nov 2005

Local MP Annette Brooke today attended a briefing meeting in the House of Commons in support of the joint bid by Southampton and Portsmouth Universities to establish the Southern School of Dentistry - the first dental school in the South outside London.

Although the Government today announced a 1,000 new dentists in England and Wales, and a 25 per cent increase in the number of undergraduate places, this is a very long overdue gesture towards a profession which in less than six months faces its biggest shake up in NHS dentistry in over 60 years with the introduction of the new dental contract. Those dentists who have remained in the NHS fear what the government's new system will mean for them in terms of funding and workload.

Annette Brooke MP said:

"I welcome the 25 percent increase in undergraduate places to study dentistry and I am fully behind the joint bid by Southampton and Portsmouth Universities to be the new home of a dental school in the south. Given that the promise of 1,000 new dentists includes those imported from Poland and Spain, it is absolutely vital that we invest in training 'home grown' dentists who could then go on to practise in the south.

"I have been lobbying the government for more funding for NHS dentists in my constituency since 2001, and the crisis in dentistry has existed since well before then. Why, then, have we had to wait until the end of 2005 for this long overdue investment?"

The proportion of adults and children registered with a dentist has been declining since 1997, and that less than 50 per cent of adults and only 66% of children in Dorset are registered with an NHS dentist.

ENDS