MPS have welcomed Government plans that will see thousands of people across Cornwall being able to access urgent and emergency dental care.

Cornwall will receive 10,910 new emergency urgent dental appointments as part of the Government’s wider NHS dentistry recovery plan.

Labour MPs Jayne Kirkham, who represents Truro and Falmouth, and Noah Law, who represents St Austell and Newquay, along with Ben Maguire and Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat MPs for North Cornwall and St Ives respectively, are among the Cornish MPs who have campaigned on the issue.

Mr Law said: “Throughout my conversations with voters during last year’s election campaign, I heard loud and clear the deep-lying frustration and disappointment felt by residents across Cornwall about the poor state of our public services.

“Patients and NHS staff alike were let down by 14 years of underinvestment and failure to reform by the previous Conservative Government, which hollowed out local services. Nowhere was this more apparent than in NHS dentistry where it has become impossible for some patients to get any kind of appointment at all.

“Indeed, in Cornwall, the percentage of adults seen by an NHS dentist has declined, dropping from 47.3% in 2019-2020, to just 34.5 per cent in 2023-24, with access to NHS dentistry increasingly a lottery across the country.

“We have all seen the appalling footage of patients queuing round the block in some parts of England. Nationally, after more than a decade of failure, the Tories shockingly left millions waiting for treatment.

“They brought in a New Patient Premium scheme that didn’t have any impact for new patients, with new figures revealing that £88million was wasted on the scheme.

“Labour promised we would end the misery faced by hundreds of thousands of people unable to get urgent dental care.

“We’re starting to deliver on that commitment.

“Minister for Care Stephen Kinnock MP has announced that hundreds of thousands of people, including in Cornwall will soon be able to access urgent and emergency dental care as the government and NHS rolls out 700,000 extra urgent appointments, delivering on Labour’s manifesto commitment.

“This is a critical step forward as the Labour Government begins to fix the broken system left behind by the previous Conservative administration.

“Patients across the country will benefit – in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, 10,910 urgent care appointments alone are to be delivered.

“Residents in Cornwall deserve far more than the deterioration of services that they have witnessed over the past decade. I campaigned hard on this issue before the general election and I will continue to do so as your local MP.

“We all know that NHS dentistry cannot be rebuilt overnight, but I am delighted that this Labour Government is taking such an important step towards not only repairing NHS dentistry but making it fit for the future.

“We have already seen the change Labour is making, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting announcing earlier this month that we have stuck to our word and delivered that first step we promised of two million more appointments a year to cut NHS waiting lists - and we've done it seven months early.

“Now Labour’s new, additional urgent dentist appointments will help many residents in Cornwall.

“Through our Plan for Change, this government will rebuild dentistry including a focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

“This will take time but today marks an important step forward towards getting NHS dentistry back on its feet.”

Mr Maguire has raised the issue of Cornwall’s severe NHS dental crisis with the Minister both in Parliament, and in a follow-up meeting, as well as directly with local health leaders.

He has submitted multiple parliamentary written questions demanding action, and recently wrote directly to Cornwall’s Integrated Care Board.

Mr Maguire has warned that while the additional appointments are a step in the right direction, they “do not go far enough” - with over 20,000 people still on the NHS dentist waiting list in Cornwall alone.

He said: “This is an important campaign win, and I’m pleased to see some progress at last.

“But let’s be clear: this is just a sticking plaster for a crisis that needs radical reform.

“With one in five dentists having left Cornwall since 2019, families are being forced to pull out their own teeth or send children to A&E with life-threatening infections.

“I raised this issue directly with Health Minister Karin Smyth in the House of Commons, as well as in our subsequent meeting, and will not stop fighting until every single person in North Cornwall has access to an NHS dentist when they need one.

“The Government must now go further by fixing the failed NHS dental contract, bringing in more NHS dentists with targeted recruitment incentives, and introducing mobile emergency dental units to reach our hardest-hit rural communities.

“Anything less is an insult to the people still suffering without basic dental care, and I will be keeping the pressure on until the crisis is solved once and for all.”

Mr George added: “This is a welcome first step, but this will only scratch the surface.

“The government must now urgently change the nature of the dentistry contract so that it will drive dentists back onto the NHS front line.

“The best way to do this will be as the minister is in this temporary fix – ie through an agreed salaried base. In recent years Cornwall’s ICB has underspent its dentistry budget.

“So, the problem is primarily one of contractual agreement and administration rather than just funding, though additional funding will be needed to rebuild the NHS service.”

Ms Kirkham is keen to emphasise the long-term issues dentistry faces in the region.

She said: “Everyone knows the scale of the challenge facing NHS dentistry.

“In recent years it has become near impossible to get an NHS dental appointment.

“These appointments are a critical step forward to fix the broken system left behind by the previous Conservative administration.

“Through our Plan for Change, Labour made a promise and is now delivering that promise.”

“In Cornwall, 61 per cent of patients who tried to see an NHS dentist in the last two years were unable to do so, one recent survey found.

“The highest in the country.

“And there are fewer NHS dentists in Cornwall than ever before.

"Last Friday I sat down with a group of Truro dentists and they told me that the position has been more severe here than in other parts of the country.

“It is much harder to recruit and retain dentists in Cornwall, for instance.

“That is a common issue across many professions here, as we know, but with most opportunities in cities and even abroad, it is worse in dentistry.

"There's also the issue of the dental contract.

“NHS dentists are paid in units of dental activity (UDAs) but the price for these has remained static for years and often leads to them carrying out work at a loss.

“In Cornwall, that price for units of work done has been increased slightly, and there is a local three month trial offering dentists a flat fee contract to undertake urgent work that has been referred from people phoning 111 in desperation.

“This is a good local initiative but, as these kinds of pilots can often be, short-lived.

"This government will rebuild dentistry, with a focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

“That will involve training more dentists. In the meantime, these 700,000 extra appointments are an important step towards getting NHS dentistry back on its feet.

“The long-term fix will be a challenge but I will continue to work with local dentists and the government to ensure that we get there as quick as we can."