A SPECIAL committee is due to meet to investigate access to dentistry across the Cumberland Council area in the near future.

The investigation will cover a period from July to December this year and it will be carried out by task and finish group which will include members of the council's health overview and scrutiny committee.

Speaking at Thursday's (October 26) meeting in Carlisle committee chairwoman, councillor Carni McCarron-Holmes (Maryport North, Labour), said: "We need to discuss what we are going to do about NHS dentistry."

It is understood that the first meeting could either be via an app such as Teams or Zoom or face to face and the date and time of the first meeting is yet to be decided.

The news comes just weeks after councillors heard what was described as a "stark message" from health professionals about NHS dentistry in the region.

Tom Robson and Stuart Youngman, from the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), were speaking at a meeting of Cumberland Council's health and wellbeing board at Cumbria House in Carlisle in September.

Members heard that NHS dentistry was facing a number of pressures including the backlog created during the Covid-19 pandemic and workforce pressures both nationally and locally.

And small-scale incremental changes had been introduced which had a limited impact because they were not large changes.

Speaking at the meeting Mr Youngman said private dentistry was "more lucrative" and added: "Head count is used a lot but it's a red herring. Full time equivalent is far more important than the head count."

Mr Robson said the remuneration should be more to make NHS dentistry more attractive - the current contract was set up in 2006.

Speaking at the meeting council leader, councillor Mark Fryer (St Johns and Great Clifton, Labour), described the presentation as a "stark message". He said: "Dentists go private and people are being held to ransom for their teeth."

In a council report it states that the task and finish group was to be set up, in response to a council resolution, to undertake the investigation to review access to dentistry in Cumberland.