Local MP, Gordon Prentice, has called on the East Lancs Primary Care Trust to
respond to the branding of NHS dentistry as an “appalling failure” made recently by Conservative hopeful, Andrew Stephenson.

The MP said: “There has been a big increase in dental training in the North West region. A new dental school opened at the University of Central Lancashire in 2007. One of its four linked clinical education centres is in Accrington, where four state-of-the-art dental surgeries also act as the new base for the local NHS out-of- hours emergency dental service.”

The MP added: “The NHS has over 4,000 more dentists than it did in 1997.  In East Lancashire the number of dentists per head of the population is in fact higher than elsewhere in the North West region, though the amount of NHS work each dentist does varies enormously. The latest figure, for March last year, shows East Lancashire with 53 dentists per 100,000 of the population compared to 43 in the North West region and 41 in England overall.”

“The latest available figures on earnings for dentists working under NHS contracts show net income ranging from £73,000 to £134,000 a year. Nonetheless many prefer to do mainly private work.”

Note to Editors:

The photograph show Gordon Prentice at the University of Central Lancashire Dental School after its opening in October 2007