Toothless in Huntingdon & Cambridge - An NHS Dentist For Everyone!

Communities across Cambridgeshire & Peterborough are suffering from NHS dentist closures and the widespread lack of accessible NHS dentistry provision. Toothless in Huntingdon & Toothless in Cambridge were founded in the wake of multiple local dentistry closures to hear testimony from patients and to urge authorities to take action.

As health inequality continues to rise, patients are being put at considerable inconvenience and distress. The physical and mental pain suffered by those who are unable to find an NHS dentist local to them has all too often been matched by the financial hardships of being forced to 'go private' as practices are not taking on NHS patients.

A review of the publicly available Cambridgeshire & Peterborough ICB Board agendas and papers indicates that NHS dentistry has not been the subject of a dedicated Board agenda item since responsibility for commissioning transferred to the ICB in April 2023.

The national Toothless in England campaign is calling for:

1. An NHS dentist for everyone

2. Reforms to the NHS dental contract that will encourage dentists to provide NHS treatments

3. Revenue to cover the 50% of the population that are unfunded by the government

4. NHS dental treatments to be free at the point of use

5. People to be prioritised before shareholder dividend - no more privatisation

6. An end to the two-tier system - hygienists, routine check-ups and preventative treatments must be a core NHS function

The NHS was founded as a free-to-all service back in 1948. We pay for it, in part, via national insurance and taxation, yet our NHS dentists continue to disappear.

We want them back!

"No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical care because of a lack of means or availability." - Nye Bevan