University of Suffolk dental centre planned to boost NHS care

A new social enterprise dental centre is planned at the University of Suffolk

A new dental centre is being created at a university aiming to ease the "crisis" in the number of NHS dentists.

The centre for dental development is planned for the University of Suffolk's campus in Ipswich.

The university said it was "determined to provide workforce solutions to the present oral health crisis."

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) said it recognised it was a "medium-term solution".

Pressure group Toothless in Suffolk, which campaigns for better provision in the county, said many were having difficulty accessing NHS dentists.

The university, which is working with the ICB on the plans for the centre, said it would be "run as a social dental enterprise in order to attract and train newly qualified dentists to work within this dental facility to supply additional much-needed NHS dental provision across Suffolk".

It would include facilities for the training of undergraduate students in dental therapy and hygiene, and apprentice dental technicians and post-graduate dentists.

Steve Marsling and other members of Toothless in Suffolk have been calling for better NHS dental provision

Prof Helen Langton, vice-chancellor of the university, said: "This plan will be a game-changer in terms of future dental health provision in Suffolk and East Anglia.

Dr Ed Garratt, chief executive of the Integrated Care Board, which take responsibility for commissioning dental care from next April, said: "We recognise that this is a medium-term solution that will not fix the immediate challenges around dental access."

However, he said he believed the planned centre would "lay the foundations for improvements in the future".

Mark Jones, from campaign group Toothless in England, said while he welcomed the news of the new centre, he was not sure "what this will mean... for the tens of thousands of patients in Suffolk currently unable to access dental treatment on the NHS".

"Until we see the government move towards significantly progressing much-needed funding and reform of the NHS contract, patients in Suffolk will continue to suffer the ravages of a hopelessly inadequate and inaccessible dental care system," he said.