Essex MP urges the Government to improve access to dentists in the county

Giles Watling calls on a structural reform to the NHS profession.

Author: Ines SantosPublished 29th Jan 2023

A Essex MP is calling on the Government to help ensure that those moving to the county can get better access to a dentist.

Giles Watling says his inbox is inundated with local people struggling to get an NHS Practioniner to have a look at their teeth.

He said: "Most of the emails I get is from people who move to my constituency and then discover they can't get a dentist.

"To register from fresh is a really tough issue, so that needs to be addressed and go up in the Government's agenda."

Mr Watling also says structural reform to the NHS profession is vital to ensure those in Clacton can get better and more reliable access to Practioniners.

He added that the dental contract needs to be changed to attract more people into the profession.

Mr Watling said: "All I'm doing as an MP is pushing for reform to give a better deal to dentists so that they will want to have an NHS contract."

The local MP also says there are a lot of dentists in the county, but the issue is that many of them cannot work now because of Brexit.

He said: "I don't think anybody foresaw quite what the effect of Brexit was going to have on this. We now have this issue where we have a lot of dentists around, but a lot of them came from Europe, and so they have to resit the exams.

"These dentists are perfectly capable, but they aren't able to work, and we need to streamline that."

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