The Greater Norwich Growth Board – a partnership between Norwich, Broadland, South Norfolk and Norwich councils with works to accelerate the delivery of infrastructure in the Greater Norwich area – has approved £1.5m of funding towards a dental school at the University of East Anglia.
The proposed School of Oral Health will provide specialist undergraduate training and lead to more dentists practicing in Norfolk, which was described by the Health Secretary recently as a ‘dental desert’.
This complements the Labour government’s Dentistry Rescue Plan to provide 700,000 more urgent appointments and recruit more new dentists to areas that need them most, as well as its longer-term commitments to increase the focus on prevention and reform the dental contract to rebuild NHS dentistry.
Cllr Mike Stonard, Leader of Norwich City Council and member of the GNGB, says:
“I really strongly support this. We have a shortage of dentists, particularly NHS ones in Norfolk and the nearest training facility is a long, long way away.”