As part of his campaign to improve access to NHS Dentistry in North West Norfolk, James Wild MP recently spoke in Parliament to ask the Minister for Health about the progress of securing a dental school at the University of East Anglia, and the possibility of an overseas registration scheme for recruiting new dentists.
Access to NHS dentists in North West Norfolk is a long-running issue with our community having one of the lowest number of dentist per population. Improving access to dentists is an issue that James has campaigned on since his election. He successfully campaigned for a new practice in Lynn which as delivered thousands of NHS appointments since it opened in July 2022.
However there is still more to be done, James recently urged the Minister of State for Care to secure a new dental for UEA so that people can train and work locally, in the meantime, James also urged the minister to consider overseas registration scheme to address the gaps in recruitment.
Speaking in Parliament, James said:
"Having training locally at the University of East Anglia is important for my constituents, but in the short term, what steps is the Minister taking to speed up the process by which dentists get on the dental performers list, so that they can work in the NHS and not just privately? Is he also considering bringing in a provisional overseas registration scheme?"
Stephen Kinnock, Minister of Sate for Care said in response:
"I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question. We are looking at provisional registration. As I also mentioned to his hon. Friend the Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew), we are very open to the idea of a dental training school at the University of East Anglia. We need to ensure that we push on the full spectrum of all these measures, because there is a crisis in NHS dentistry and we need to get on and fix it."
