Debate contribution: NHS Dentistry

Debate contribution by Mr Philip McGuigan on 28 April 2026.

MLA

Mr Philip McGuigan

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

28 April 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

NHS Dentistry

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5510122

Read the official Assembly record

Text

There is absolutely no doubt that, in recent years, an increasing number of patients have struggled to access NHS dentistry services here in the North, as more dental practices are moving towards privatisation due to a lack of investment and rising costs across the sector. Constituents contact my office and me about that issue regularly, as do representatives of the dental profession, who have been very clear that, unless meaningful action is taken soon, more dentists will inevitably leave the NHS. The crisis in NHS dentistry will then deepen further and have more of an impact on citizens in the North.

I thank the Members who tabled the motion. We will support the motion and the amendment. The motion highlights the fact that "only 50%" of the population of the North is now registered to receive NHS dental care. That statistic should cause us great concern. The motion also draws attention to the growing problem:

"of registrations lapsing due to non-attendance".

In my North Antrim constituency, the scale of the issue is stark. During 2024-25, 23,865 registrations lapsed. There were also 2,500 deregistrations. Those figures represent individuals who have effectively fallen out of the system. The fact that we are seeing such numbers in a single constituency, with people losing their NHS dental registration within one year, suggests that it is a matter not simply of missed appointments but of significant and persistent barriers to care. Those barriers include transport difficulties in rural constituencies, the cost of travelling to the nearest NHS dentist, ill health or caring responsibilities on the day of an appointment and the reduced availability of NHS appointments as more practices scale back or withdraw from the system, resulting in patients being unable to attend within the required time frame. When tens of thousands of patients' registrations lapse, however, we must be honest and say that it is not a failure of patients to attend but, rather, a failure of a system that cannot provide appointments within the time required in order for them to remain registered. We must also recognise the growing number of people who have never been able to secure NHS dental registration. For them, the barriers to accessing care are even more pronounced. The importance of dental care cannot be overstated. Oral health is closely linked to wider general health, with well-documented associations with heart disease, diabetes, respiratory illnesses and complications in pregnancy. When people cannot access routine check-ups or preventative treatment, minor issues escalate to serious conditions that place additional pressure on the wider health service. We know that further losses of NHS dental practices will have a disproportionate impact on those on lower incomes and on children. They may then go without regular check-ups and preventative care for many years. An entitlement to free dental treatment is meaningless if people cannot find an NHS dentist with the capacity to treat them. Our public health service was created to reduce health inequalities, yet we are witnessing a widening of those inequalities across the board. With private health care becoming increasingly evident, nowhere is that shift more visible than in dentistry. Access to dental care cannot be based on someone's ability to pay, so we must speak with one voice to ensure that it does not. The Minister of Health's announcement last week of an £8 million investment is welcome, but, like the funding that was announced last year, it focuses predominantly on short-term stabilising measures that only highlight the urgent need for sustained action and long-term reform. The Minister must bring forward a plan to stabilise NHS dentistry in order to prevent a complete collapse of the service. He must publish the findings of the general dental services (GDS) cost-of-service review without any further delay. It is essential that the NHS dental contract be revised to reflect the true cost of delivering modern dental care, ensuring that practices are not pushed towards privatisation out of financial necessity. Everyone deserves to be fairly paid for the work that they do. In his three-year plan for Health and Social Care, the Minister has committed to developing an action plan for the reform of general dental services by April 2027, but we are now almost halfway through 2026, and time is running out. I am increasingly concerned that, by April 2027, we may not have any health service dentists left. I urge the Minister to work closely with dentistry representatives to address the issues, which include access, workforce challenges and the growing crisis in NHS dentistry, and to restore public confidence in that vital part of our health service.

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

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:28 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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