00:00Unfortunately, it appears unlikely there's not going to be any change for a number of
00:07years and despite the fact that from the previous government and this government we've had noises
00:15around creating new appointments, there's no flesh on the bones. We don't know where
00:20these new appointments are going to come from, who's going to deliver them, how they're going
00:25to be delivered, and in the current circumstances, where the funding is going to come from because
00:30traditionally NHS dentistry has been underfunded over the last long period of time, 10-20 years.
00:41Earlier this year, research found that certain areas of the UK are considered to be dental
00:46deserts, with too few dentists to treat the population. Some examples of dental deserts
00:52include Norfolk, Devon and Cornwall, Cumbria and much of Wales. Some issues related to
00:57dental deserts in the UK include lack of awareness, people turning to private care and the rise
01:03in self-treatment.
01:05The big waiting list increase arose as a result of Covid and that was down to the fact that
01:14it was the only sector of healthcare that was totally closed for three months at the
01:18beginning of Covid. And if you imagine how many courses of treatment are carried out
01:24during three months, that gave us a huge backlog. We reckoned about 12 million courses of treatment
01:29at that stage. We then look at the workforce issue and we have a huge shortage. We're then
01:39looking at the effects of Brexit. We urgently need a new contract, which is more attractive
01:46to dentists, delivers for patients and encourages the dentist to stay in the NHS system.
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