A survey that was published last week by the British Dental Association Scotland revealed that 52 per cent of largely or exclusively national health service practices and 86 per cent of mixed practices predicted a reduction in NHS work during the next year because of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the provision on NHS dental services.

Given the precarious position that dental practices face, what additional financial support will be provided to ensure the viability of those practices? Without that, there is a real possibility that dentistry in Scotland will quickly move towards a two-tier system with reduced access for NHS patents.

There is not, and there should not be seen to be, a two-tier system of oral healthcare. If dental practices are ready to do so, they can provide aerosol-generating procedures on patients with urgent dental problems from 17 August. We have 75 urgent dental care centres throughout Scotland, to which patients continue to be referred.

On funding, we recognise the pressures that Covid is bringing to bear on all aspects of our health service and all areas of our economy. We will continue to work with the dental profession and seek to provide whatever support that we can.

We are already making exceptional payments to the value of around £12 million per month to support national health service dental incomes, which shows the degree of financial help that is being provided to meet the challenge of these difficult times. We will continue to look at what more we can do on dental practices, as with all other areas.