Health Secretary sets out plan to tackle NHS dental 'crisis' during visit to Peterborough

Health Secretary Wes Streeting used a visit to Peterborough to lay out the government’s plan to tackle the NHS dentistry crisis.

Mr Streeting visited the city’s NHS Dental Access Centre at Midgate on Thursday (February 27) alongside Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes and Labour’s Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mayoral candidate and current Deputy Mayor Anna Smith.

Staff at the centre were able to showcase the facilities on offer in Midgate including in urgent dental care, minor oral surgery, oral health outreach and special care for adults and children who unable to access a regular dentist due to their additional needs.

The visit came in the same week that the government announced the creation of 14,000 new emergency dental appointments in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire, starting in April.

Mr Streeting spoke of how impressed he was at the centre as well as the support the government is planning to offer as part of its ten-year plan to regenerate the NHS and make it fir for purpose again.

He said: “NHS dentistry is in crisis and it is a particular challenge here in Peterborough.

"We have got to make sure that, as the Labour government is delivering on its commitment to deliver 700,000 urgent appointments, that we make sure that Peterborough and the Integrated Care Board gets their fair share.

“It is absolutely amazing what this practice is doing to meet the needs of the local community as well as going out of their way to meet the needs of the those really struggling, including the homeless.

“Peterborough is a dental desert but this practice in an oasis. I have been really impressed with the extent they have been bending over backwards to make this surgery as accessible as possible, from the design for people who are wheelchair users and the sensory room for people with autism and other sensory needs.

“These new appointments will go some way to help but will not solve all of the problems but we have hit the ground running ahead of a hell of a lot more to do.

“We take on the challenge of the British Dental Association that there is more to do – they have been rightly critical of this and previous governments- and we are determined to work with dentists to give people an NHS dentistry service we can be proud of.

“We are determined to deliver the homes that people need in Peterborough but alongside those new homes, people want the local services to go with them, which we will work with our Labour representatives to deliver.”