Dewsbury’s MP has said she is “shocked” that her area was snubbed in a new scheme to improve dental health of youngsters.
MP Paula Sherriff has reacted angrily at a government decision to ignore the “appalling levels” of dentistry problems in her constituency.
The Examiner has revealed previously that Dewsbury has vastly less NHS cash spent on its dentists than in Huddersfield.
In 2015, NHS dental spending in Huddersfield’s Greenhead ward was 14 times higher than in Dewsbury West.
At the time there was only one NHS dentist that was taking on patients.
Ms Sherriff has now claimed there are currently no dental practices accepting new NHS patients in the whole constituency – which also includes Mirfield, Kirkburton and Denby Dale.
She has written to health minister Steve Brine asking why it was not included in a scheme to target 13 “high need” areas with poor oral health for children under the age of five.
She said: “I’m astounded that, given the appalling levels of child tooth decay in the Dewsbury constituency and the woeful lack of dental health provision, our area has not been included.
“How can it be that an area with such dire need and abysmal dental health provision has not been identified as a high need area?
“According to Public Health England, five-year-old children in the Dewsbury constituency are 3.5 times more likely to suffer from tooth decay than their peers in Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s constituency.”
The Examiner revealed in 2015 that the difficulty in accessing and affording an NHS dentist in Dewsbury had led charity Dentaid – usually active in Africa, Asia and Central America – to launch the first out-of-hours “pay if you can” emergency scheme in the UK.
