West Streeting says Labour needs to deliver real improvements to NHS

Wes Streeting, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, has out his new ‘rescue plan’ for NHS dentistry after it was revealed just three per cent of practices in the North East are accepting new patients.

Labour plans to spend £111m a year providing 700,000 more urgent dentist appointments and incentives to get more dentists working in areas like the North East, which has previously been described as a dental desert.

Mr Streeting said it could take 10 years to get the NHS ‘back on its feet’ and fit for the future, but accepted Labour will need to deliver noticeable change within a first term in power if it is to win over voters here.

Mr Streeting said: “By the end of the first term of a Labour government I would expect to see a significant improvement in access to NHS dentistry, reform of the NHS dentistry contract and serious progress made to rebuilding NHS dentistry.

Wes Streeting (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

“I have been clear that it’s going to take a decade to get the NHS not just back on its feet but fit for the future.

“In the first term of a Labour government I would want people to feel and experience that real improvement in terms of access to NHS dentistry so that people give us permission to carry on and get the job done with a second term.

“Because the Conservatives have crashed the economy and left the public finances in a mess money is not in abundance at the moment, so reform is going to have to do more of the heavy lifting,

“We’re not counting our chickens before they’ve hatched, we’re going to work hard to win every vote and the North East is going to be one of those places that really determines the outcome of the election.

“Right across the country there is a crisis in NHS dentistry, but it’s felt particularly badly in the North East which has one of the worst pictures in terms of people struggling to get access to an NHS dentist.”

Stats released on Monday revealed Easington was the only constituency in the region where practices haven’t totally closed their books. A total of 245 practices in the North East are not accepting any new patients out of 253 dental surgeries that responded.

DIY dentistry horror stories have become commonplace with some resorting to literally pulling their own teeth out.

Adults and children have been forced to pay over the odds for private treatment. People are fitting their own fillings and extracting their own teeth without anaesthetic or professional training.

The Northern Echo previously told how Durham man Ray Glendinning couldn’t get an NHS dentist appointment and discovered he had an aggressive cancerous tumour earlier this year, but only after paying for it privately.

Ray Glendinning only found out he had an aggressive tumour after paying for a private appointment. (Image: STUART BOULTON)

The 64-year-old fears he may not be alive had he not paid for the appointment which discovered the tumour in his jaw.

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Mr Streeting added: “The issue, as extraordinarily the former Tory dentistry minister has admitted today, is the capacity is there to see patients but unless it’s funded dentists aren’t willing to work for the NHS. They’re voting with their feet and largely going private.

“In 2010 Labour had in our manifesto reform of the NHS dentistry contract, and for 13 years the Conservatives have done absolutely nothing about it.

“Labour has a plan to rescue NHS dentistry and if people want to know what the Conservative’s plan is they only need to look at Cornwall where they’re currently piloting restricting access to NHS dentistry to the over 80s and to children.”