Following an announcement that £50 million of Government money is to be spent creating 350,000 more dental appointments, MP Bob Seely has written to Island health bosses encouraging them to submit a bid for a share of the funding pot on behalf of the Isle of Wight.
In his letter to the Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group, Mr Seely said: “I am writing to you with regard to the £50 million of funding recently made available by the Department of Health and Social Care, in order to ameliorate the recent NHS dentistry backlog.
“As I understand it, Clinical Commissioning Groups are required to tender bids for a share of the allocated funding. I am writing to you to urge you to proffer your bid at the soonest appropriate date.”
The Island can bid for part of a £7 million funding pot allocated to the Southeast region to help services get back to pre-pandemic levels and give people access to the care they need.
Mr Seely has also written to Health Secretary Sajid Javid in pre-emptive support of an Isle of Wight bid.
In his letter to Mr Javid, he said: “The Isle of Wight’s dentistry services have been one of the public amenities most severely affected by the pandemic. I have received regular correspondence from constituents who have struggled to find NHS dental practices with capacity.
“This is compounded by the Island’s less economically developed status, meaning many who are unable to secure public dentistry services lack the necessary finances to pay for private treatment: some were forced to regularly pay exorbitant ferry prices in order to receive public dental services on the mainland; others (who could not afford ferry tickets) resorted to amateur and unsafe dental practices.”
This is not the first time Mr Seely has highlighted the problems Islanders face in trying to access an NHS dentist. Previously he has spoken on the subject during Parliamentary questions and debates and evidenced the issues in letters and written questions to Ministers. He recently highlighted the issues to Health Minister Maria Caulfield putting forward some suggestions as to how to tackle the issue.
Mr Seely said: “I have made it very clear to Ministers that the Isle of Wight needs help to create more dentistry appointments. I have also suggested ways Government can do this. This is not something we can easily fix ourselves; it needs Government intervention.
“I am pleased Government has set aside this pot of money to fund additional appointments and I hope it will look favourably on an Isle of Wight bid.
“I will continue to highlight the Island’s issues to Westminster colleagues to try to secure as much help and support for Islanders as possible.”
