FOUR years after the National Health Service began in 1948, its founding health minister Nye Bevan wrote “no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means”.  

It was a succinct expression of the NHS mission statement – to provide medical care, free at the point of use – a principle that has been a cornerstone of our society for more than seven decades.  

Bevan argued that if the NHS was to be truly a universal health service, it must include dentistry. The launch of the NHS saw a deluge of demand to remove rotten teeth, with a million sets of dentures distributed in the first nine months of the service.  

In 1951, when Attlee’s government proposed to introduce charges on dentures, Bevan took the principled decision to resign from the government in protest. Despite those early tensions, the nation’s dental health improved significantly. The proportion of 12-year-olds with no significant dental decay was only 19% in 1948 but had risen to 82% by 2023.  

But this great achievement of the NHS risks unravelling. The SNP are allowing the privatisation of dentistry to thrive, and no minister in the Scottish Government has the courage to stand up and call out what is going on.  

Glaswegians know just how difficult it is to get access to an NHS dentist these days –the outrageous waiting times for appointments in Glasgow mean that people are being forced out of the NHS. This is a trend across the country, but the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board saw the largest number of patients leaving NHS practices with 16,366 people forced out of NHS care since 2021 and 9723 in 2022 alone.    

It is simply not good enough that the state of NHS dentistry across the country is so poor people are having to fork out huge sums to be seen by a private dental practice.    

This is what privatisation looks like – those who can, pay for a private dentist; those who can’t, suffer without access to an NHS dentist when they need it.  

The Scottish Government’s failure to get a grip of the decline in NHS dentistry is compounding health inequalities; those in the wealthiest areas are far more likely to be seen by an NHS dentist while poorer areas are likely to be forced to wait longer for the care they need.  

Public Health Scotland data shows that in the first three months of 2024, 44,812 children and 133,705 adults from poorer areas in Scotland went to the dentist for treatment while 55,780 children and 168,161 adults from Scotland’s wealthiest neighbourhoods went to see a dentist.  

Dental disease inequalities remain, last year only 72% of children from the most deprived areas experienced no tooth decay, compared to 88% of children in the least deprived areas.  

We need a new vision for dental care which focuses on prevention to replace the tired drill-and-fill model of dentistry.   

In 2006, the last Labour-led Scottish Government introduced the world-leading Childsmile pilot which is now an invaluable national programme which centres prevention through providing all children with a toothbrush and toothpaste, supervised tooth brushing in nurseries and some school settings and the targeted application of fluoride varnish.    

Scottish Labour want to build on this legacy, by expanding the scheme and introducing more targeted interventions in areas of high deprivation.   

All Glaswegians deserve access to NHS dental care regardless of their postcode and they should not be forced to sacrifice their lifesavings to pay to relieve themselves of their dental pain, or worse suffer in pain due to a lack of means.   

The SNP have undermined Bevan’s founding principle by allowing NHS dentistry provision to decline to the extent that it has – for many it is simply no longer there when they need it. If you are one of the many people affected by this situation, I am keen to hear from you.