Dorset’s Labour MPs are calling for urgent action to address the growing dental care crisis in the county, with many residents struggling to access NHS services.
Bournemouth West MP Jessica Toale, South Dorset’s Lloyd Hatton, Poole’s Neil Duncan-Jordan, and Bournemouth East’s Tom Hayes have written to Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting, urging immediate intervention. Their letter comes in response to numerous reports from residents forced to travel to Southampton or Bristol for NHS dental care or even resort to DIY dentistry due to a lack of available services closer to home.
Laura Williams, a resident of Bournemouth West, shared her frustration: “I’m a busy working mum, and I have to spend an entire day and over £100 in petrol just to have a dental check-up.” Williams, who relocated back to Bournemouth 18 months ago, makes a five-hour round trip to Bristol for her annual check-up. “It’s madness,” she added, “I’m conscious that I’m blocking a spot for someone else, but I daren’t remove myself from their books because who knows when or where I’ll find another dentist.”
The MPs’ letter follows the alarming findings that the South West has become the worst region in the UK for NHS dental access, with nearly 99.1% of dental practices unable to accept new adult patients. In Dorset alone, almost 60% of adults and 47% of children have not seen an NHS dentist in the past year.
Jessica Toale emphasized the severity of the issue, saying, “It really shouldn’t be impossible to access NHS dental care where you live, but for so many of my constituents, it is.” South Dorset MP Lloyd Hatton raised concerns about the ongoing recruitment difficulties, adding, “Not a single dental practice in my constituency is taking on new adult NHS patients.”
While the MPs have welcomed the government’s recent pledge to provide 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments across the UK—13,569 of which will be allocated to Dorset—they argue that this measure does not address the broader issue of limited access to routine dental care. The MPs have called for a meeting with the Health Secretary to discuss long-term solutions and invited Wes Streeting to visit Dorset to hear directly from patients and local dentists about the scale of the crisis.
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