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 Newquay and St Austell MP Noah Law and Ben Maguire, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, 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.”