NHS dental provision in Cornwall a 'staggering' failure

The report found a third of 12-year-olds in Cornwall have no dentist

NHS dentistry in Cornwall has suffered a "market failure of quite staggering proportions", the county's director of public health has said.

Rachel Wigglesworth made the comments in response to a report submitted to Cornwall Council's Health and Adult Social Care Committee.

The report found a third of 12-year-olds in Cornwall have no dentist.

NHS Kernow said that it can only afford to pay for dental services which would provide for half of the population.

Ms Wiggleswroth described this as "shocking".

Tessa Fielding, from NHS England - which is responsible for commissioning NHS dental services in Cornwall, said the contract process is being reviewed.

The report also revealed that just 24% of 900,000 NHS dental treatments commissioned in 2020/21 were delivered.

That was due in part to the Covid-19 pandemic and in 2021/22 the figure had increased to 59%, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

Speaking at the committee meeting, Ms Wigglesworth said: "In terms of dental treatment and access it is a market failure of quite staggering proportions for Cornwall."

Cornwall councillors told the committee of cases in their areas where people were struggling to find a dentist or access NHS dental treatment.

Councillor Armand Toms, from Looe, said there was now just one dentist in the town to provide dental care for 5,300 people and it was "more than one person can handle".

The committee heard there were problems with recruiting and retaining dentists in Cornwall to provide NHS services, and that more work was being done to try to encourage newly qualified dentists to move to the area.