On the floor of the House of Commons on January 30, 2023, South Lakes MP Tim Farron made the case for tackling the crisis in dentistry during the debate on the government’s plans to improve the NHS.
Tim’s comments come after another NHS dentist in Cumbria has had to shut its doors to NHS patients. A practice in Grange-over-Sands currently serves roughly 5,800 patients who are being asked to either join the newly private practice or look elsewhere.
The government’s plans to solve the issues within the NHS are being labelled the ‘Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan’. It promises to deliver 5000 new beds and 800 new ambulances. However, extensive questions have been raised over the lack of plans to fix staff shortages and no mention of NHS dentists. There are currently no dental surgeries within Cumbria that are taking on new NHS patients.
During the debate, Tim posed a question to the health secretary, Steve Barclay, on this matter, “What will the Secretary of State do to fix an NHS dentistry crisis that leaves a family of four having to cough up an extra £1000 a year during a cost of living crisis to get access to dental care that they have already paid for through their taxes?”
In response, the Health Secretary claimed that the immediate plan is to respond to the emergency situation currently affecting the NHS; plans for improved primary care services would be brought forward in the future.
Speaking afterwards, Tim said, “This plan from the Government is completely half-baked.
“It ignores the root cause of the problems across the NHS; understaffing and poor wages should surely be the government’s first priority if we are to save our NHS.
“It is a kick in the teeth l for people to be paying so highly in taxes for services they can’t receive. Dentistry is an incredibly important aspect of our healthcare services and it is an outrage for it to have been completely forgotten about.”