Debate contribution: Dental Care

Debate contribution by Mr Colin McGrath on 27 May 2025.

MLA

Mr Colin McGrath

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

27 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Dental Care

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4972163

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I support the motion and the amendment, which highlight the growing crisis in our dental service that is affecting people across the North. We have heard it from patients and practitioners and through the Assembly: accessing NHS dental care is becoming a struggle for far too many people in our communities. Let us look at the facts. According to the British Dental Association, NHS dental services in Northern Ireland now operate under a model that is simply not financially viable. Dentists are being reimbursed at rates that do not cover their costs. As a result, many have to make the painful decision to limit or stop seeing NHS patients altogether. There is a little reflection in that — let us just take that for a moment. Who would do something when it costs them to do it? If you provide a public service to the public, you should be reimbursed the costs that you are out and not have to pay and contribute to that. The result has been that, now, only two dental practices in the North conduct solely NHS work.

A recent survey by the BDA found that 90% of dentists in Northern Ireland are unable to take on new NHS adult patients. We know that that is much more than a statistic. It represents hundreds of thousands of people in our communities — the people whom we represent — who are no longer able to access NHS treatment. They are effectively locked out of the care that can be provided for them. It goes to the very basis of the value that we place on the NHS and the public's ability to access timely healthcare, free at the point of delivery, which is still something that we should be trying to get. Early and preventative dental care is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Left untreated, tooth decay — I have personal experience of that — can lead to lots of pain; it can lead to infection; you can miss time from school or work; and, in some cases, there can be emergency hospital admissions as a result. It is estimated that dental issues account for thousands of hospital admissions across the UK each year. Having to deal with those cases in hospitals costs our NHS more in the long run than it would to make the small investment that is needed in our dental services. As for equality, it cannot be right that where you live in Northern Ireland determines whether you can see a dentist and whether you will have to pay. We know that there are significant regional disparities, with rural areas disadvantaged and hit the hardest. For that reason, the SDLP particularly welcomes the amendment, which focuses on addressing those inequalities. I will make my usual and gentle remarks as a member of the Opposition. We have the situation in which there are four parties in this Chamber that are in government. Four parties sit around the same Executive table, yet today, one of those Executive parties brings a motion and another an amendment, both calling for urgent action from their own Health Minister. People care about seeing a dentist when their child has toothache. They care about not having to choose between going private or going without. They care about action. That is why the Opposition can support the motion and the amendment, so let us get on with fixing the system.

I thank my colleague for that remark. It fits in that dental practitioners are medical practitioners in our community and part of our wider NHS medical fraternity. They can spot things. They can intervene. They can provide support. We need a system that is supported back the way and funded so that it can undertake all the work that it needs to. One way to get on with fixing that system is to see the general dental services' cost-of-service review published. Dentists need clarity, patients need access and the Department of Health needs a strategy that is fit for purpose. The SDLP will continue to speak up for those left behind by the current system. We will work with all the parties committed to improvement and support any genuine efforts to deliver the care that people deserve.

708 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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