Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon, first launched her dentistry petition in August calling for the Government to provide emergency dental provision in North Devon. On Tuesday 24th October, Selaine presented the petition to parliament with 723 physical signatures.
Over 1,700 people have signed the petition both physically and online. Physical copies of the petition were available for residents to sign at council offices, online and via the MP’s Barnstaple constituency office.
Since being elected Selaine has continuously raised concerns over the availability of dental service, and recruitment and retention of dentists in the region with government ministers, the NHS, the County Council and Integrated Care Board. In September, she raised the issue directly with the Prime Minister on his visit to North Devon District Hospital.
Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon, said:
“I would like to thank everyone in North Devon who has signed my parliamentary petition whether physically or online. Over 1,700 people have signed it, and I was delighted to formally present it in Parliament this week to signal to Government how much the people of North Devon want an improvement to our dentists now.
“This petition has to receive a formal Government response within two months, it is yet another way that I as an MP can bring this longstanding issue to the attention of the Government. Alongside my ongoing engagement with ministers and teams locally I hope that it will lead to concrete steps being taken so that we can bring more dentists to North Devon.”
Whilst the Government has brought in a number of changes to dental contracts and the recruitment of overseas dentists which will improve the availability of dental services in the long term, this petition specifically highlights the urgent nature of the situation and the need to provide more dentists in the short term.
When the Prime Minister visited North Devon District Hospital on the 14th September, he was asked about the Catch Up Dental Plan and said to Devon Live:
“This was the first letter Selaine wrote as an MP so she has been talking about this issue, rightly and passionately, from the day she became an MP.
“I’m aware, and Government is aware about the challenges of dentistry in rural areas. What I can tell you, is that we’re investing record sums nationally in dentistry; £3bn. Overall the amount of dental activity in the last year has gone up over 20% thanks to the reforms that we have made to the dentistry contract and the extra funding, but I get there are particular challenges in rural areas and we’re always going to keep looking at ways to improve people’s accessibility for dentistry.
“One thing we are doing, which is important for people to know, is that we’re investing now to train the dentists of the future. Earlier this year I announced a long-term workforce plan, which we are putting the money now in increasing the number of training places for dentists by around 50% and nobody has ever done anything like that before. That’s not going to help today, but it should give people the comfort that we’re making the right decisions for the long term, so that in the long term, North Devon will have the dentists it needs because I made a decision this year to start training more of them.”
