Luke Pollard MP Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport
- Labour will scrap band 1 dental charges
- The waiting list for an NHS dentist is now 13,000 people in Plymouth
- Luke Pollard:
Today, Labour announced that we would invest in oral health and scrap band 1 dental charges. This would make it easier for people to get an NHS dental check-up. We know that DIY dentistry is on the rise and 1 in 5 patients delay treatment because of cost.
More and more people in Plymouth are finding it harder to see an NHS dentist. The waiting list for an NHS dentist is now 13,000 people in Plymouth – that has risen by 5,000 people in the last year alone.
Dealing with the backlog in NHS dentistry would also help relieve pressure on A&Es too. 135,000 people attended A&E for dental problems. Over half of adults and 40% of children haven’t been to the dentist in the last year. If you don’t go to the dentist for check-ups, you end up storing up problems in the long term.
In Plymouth, the last Labour Government opened a new dental school to train new dentists. The Peninsular Dental School at Brickfields is incredible and is ranked as the second-best dental school in the entire UK. But despite that success we need more dentists in Plymouth. That is why Luke proposed opening a new ‘Super Health Hub’ in the city centre combining new GP services with NHS dentistry, sexual health testing, social care and well being services. You may have seen it on my page a few weeks ago but Plymouth City Council have backed my campaign and have just allocated £13million to build this new medical facility near the Market.
Luke Pollard said:
“So many people in Plymouth are struggling to get the dental care they deserve.
I was proud to announce a new Super Health Hub for Plymouth city centre, to make dentistry more accessible.
I want to make DIY dentistry a thing of the past. People avoid seeing a dentist because of cost and instead of buying kits to do their own fillings or go to GPs or A&E with dental problems. Labour’s full pledge on NHS England funding will be laid out in our forthcoming fully-costed manifesto.
People should not be risking their teeth because they can’t afford the dental care they need. With Labour, dental check-up fees will be scrapped as we help people live healthier lives.”