PRESS RELEASE FROM ALISTAIR STRATHERN MP FRIDAY 21st FEBRUARY 2025 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Alistair Strathern, MP for the Hitchin constituency, has celebrated securing thousands of extra dental appointments for the local area as part of the Government’s new plans to deliver 700,000 extra urgent appointments across the country.
Across the local region, 20% of patients who tried to see an NHS dentist in the last two years were unable to do so, with access to NHS dentistry increasingly a lottery across the country.
As part of plans to change this, the Government has announced over 11,000 extra urgent care appointments for the Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) covering the Hitchin constituency.
Mr Strathern has regularly met with the local ICBs since being elected to push for greater investment in NHS dentistry, and the announcement of thousands of extra emergency appointments locally will ensure many more people can now be seen by NHS dentists in an emergency.
The extra appointments will be available from April, and each ICB across the country has been set a target of urgent appointments to roll out, based on estimated local levels of unmet need for urgent NHS care. These extra appointments will be for patients who are likely to be in pain – including those suffering from infections or needing urgent repairs to a bridge – and require urgent treatment.
Alistair Strathern MP said: “Everyone in our constituency knows the scale of the challenge facing NHS dentistry after years of failure.
“In recent years it has become near impossible to get an NHS dental appointment and it is scandalous that the number one reason that five to nine year olds are admitted to hospital is because of tooth decay.
“Since being elected I have been pushing our local ICB’s to do more, and campaigning for national action in Parliament.
“I’m delighted that the Government has listened, delivering 11,000 extra emergency appointments for our area.
Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care said:
“We promised we would end the misery faced by hundreds of thousands of people unable to get urgent dental care. Today we’re starting to deliver on that commitment.
“NHS dentistry has been left broken after years of neglect with patients left in pain without appointments or queueing around the block just to be seen.
“Through our Plan for Change, this government will rebuild dentistry – focusing on prevention, retention of NHS dentists and reforming the NHS contract to make NHS work more appealing to dentists and increase capacity for more patients. This will take time but today marks an important step towards getting NHS dentistry back on its feet.”
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