12 new dentists set to be funded in and around Peterborough in effort to tackle most 'challenged areas'
A total of 12 new dentists could be funded in Peterborough.
New funding is set to lead to the creation of a number of new dentists in and around the Peterborough area.
As part of a national dentist incentivisation scheme, aimed at improving access to care in areas with the highest demand, around 240 dentists nationally are set to be offered one-off payments of up to £20,000 for taking up working in under-served areas for up to three years.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough share of this funding allocation is for 12 dentists and will be allocated in areas of the region where access to dentists is the most challenging.
The Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care Board (ICB) has said that it understands that these areas are in the Peterborough and Huntingdon localities.
Mobile dental units have also been proposed to bring essential dental care directly to underserved communities, whilst longer-term solutions are established. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has been identified as an area that would benefit from such a unit.
NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough has implemented its own Local Dental Access Improvement Plan.
The ICB secured £6.1m of funding to develop and implement a number of local initiatives to help improve access to NHS dental services.
Peterborough has been highlighted as one of the areas of need, where there are the highest levels of health inequalities and therefore will benefit from a larger proportion of this additional resource.
In 2024/25, supported nationally by £200m of government funding, NHS dentists are also being given a ‘new patient’ premium payment of between £15 - £50 (depending on treatment need) to treat around a million new patients who have not seen an NHS dentist in two years or more.
In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, 69 operators opting in to deliver the programme. Predictions are that it will enable an additional 12,625 eligible new patients to visit NHS dentists.