SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27386, 11 May 1950, Page 7

SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE

Deterioration Noted In Britain GOVERNMENT CONCERNED NZPA Special Correspondent Rec. 7.10 p.m. LONDON, May 10. The claim that the school dental service was breaking down because so many of the dentists employed in it were leaving to go into private practice where they could earn five times as much money, was made in the House of Commons by Mr A. E. Cooper (Con., South Ilford). Mr Cooper claimed that the school dental service had already become one of the real casualties of the National Health Service. Mr J. Baird (Lab., North-east Wolverhampton) said much of the trouble was due to the cheese-paring attitude taken up by local authorities, who were chiefly responsible for the operation of the school dental scheme. Too often local authorities not only restricted salaries but refused to give their dentists the equipment with which to do their work properly. He suggested that the Ministry of Health should take over the whole service and reorganise it on a regional basis. Dr Charles Hill (Liberal-Conserva-tive, Luton) said there were too few dentists in the country to provide a dental service for the community as a whole. In addition, the scale of salaries paid to school dentists was less attractive than remuneration paid to dentists working under the National Health Service. This decay of the school dental service before the eyes of the public amounted to a national scandal.

Dr Hardman. Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education, replying for the Government, said that the Ministry had been increasingly anxious about the deterioration in the school dental service. The Ministry was now awaiting a number of reports before deciding what action to take.