Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 February 2022
I never thought that I would stand here and say that the very existence of NHS dentistry in Scotland is currently under threat. The Government’s complacency in light of that is genuinely deeply concerning. NHS dentistry is in crisis. From the millions of lost appointments to the struggle to see an NHS dentist, plummeting staff morale and widening social inequalities, it is clear that urgent action is needed to pull our NHS dentist services back from the brink. Almost half of people in Scotland have been unable to see an NHS dentist for the past two years.
Yes, I know that we have had the pandemic, but the path to recovery is far from clear. Figures from Public Health Scotland show that the number of treatments up to March 2021 was down by something like 75 per cent. That equates to as many as 3.5 million appointments having been lost. That backlog will take years to clear. Measures imposed on dentists by the Government due to the pandemic have meant that the number of patients that NHS dentists are able to see is still severely limited. The British Dental Association has told us that, despite the best efforts of dentists, returning to “business as usual” is still a “distant prospect”.
It is important to note that the restrictions did not apply to private dental treatment, which is a surprising omission by the SNP Government. No wonder so many people were turning to private dental care: the Government has left them with no other choice to get the essential care that they needed.
The consequences of that are likely to be profound. In effect, we are seeing the backdoor privatisation of the Scottish dental sector. It is not as simple as lifting the restrictions and everything will be fine, as 80 per cent of Scottish dentists are planning to reduce their NHS commitment if the Government reverts to pre-pandemic arrangements.