'NHS dentistry is rotting and in decay after 13 years of Tory neglect'

23 December 2023 , 20:44

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Labour pledge to fill service holes & end DIY horrors (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

As Shadow Health Secretary, I receive letters and emails from across the country with desperate tales about the NHS. People’s experience with NHS dentistry made me think I’d picked up a copy of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by accident.

One woman awake all night with toothache was told she would have to wait two years for an appointment. She wrote: “I’m in such agony that I took ibuprofen, drank whisky and tried to pull it out myself with pliers but they kept slipping off and it was agony.” DIY Dentistry in 21st century Britain. What kind of country have we become?

Pensioners Cynthia and Leslie Commins, of Durham, have been waiting two-and-a-half years to see a dentist. Sarah Evans-Rose had to find £2,000 to pay for her son’s emergency surgery after he smashed his teeth in an accident.

Wes Streeting (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)

NHS dentistry is in decay after 13 years of Conservative neglect. Research from my office found eight in every 10 NHS dentists no longer take new patients. A report from think-tank the Nuffield Trust warned if we continue down this road, NHS dentistry will be gone for good. The Tories may be happy to wave goodbye to this vital public service but Labour won’t let that happen.

Keir Starmer has set out Labour’s plan. There will be 700,000 more dental appointments a year for those most in need, plus incentives to recruit new graduates to dental deserts – areas where no dentists take on new patients. And reform of the dental contract will mean every patient who needs a dentist can get one. We will give our country its smile back.

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Prevention is better than cure, so we will also introduce supervised toothbrushing in primary schools. The number one reason children aged six to 10 go to hospital is for rotting teeth. I want this generation of kids to be the healthiest generation ever. That means teaching them healthy habits early in life. I fear dentistry is the NHS’s ghost of Christmas yet to come.

Alarm bells ringing for dentistry are the clanging chimes of doom for the NHS. If the Tories get another five years, they will leave the health service to wither on the vine. Tory ex-Health Secretaries Sajid Javid and Matt Hancock showed their true colours by calling for charges to see a GP.

The NHS saved my life when I had kidney cancer. If we enter government next year, our mission will be to revive the NHS. The Miracle on Downing Street we need is Keir Starmer in Number 10.

Wes Streeting