COLUMN: Labour’s extra dentist appointments rolled out for residents in Northampton North

Lucy Rigby KC MP - Member of Parliament for Northampton North

Talking to residents, one thing unites conversations: deep frustration and genuine disappointment about the deteriorating state of our public services. Time and again, on doorstep after doorstep, people have shared their concerns about NHS waiting lists, and a lack of access to dentistry.

Patients and NHS staff alike have been let down by 14 years of underinvestment and a failure to reform by the Conservatives: this hollowed out NHS services, leading to record high waiting lists. 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 Northamptonshire, 41% 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. 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 left millions waiting for treatment.

Labour promised we would end the misery faced by hundreds of thousands of people unable to get urgent dental care. Now, we’re starting to deliver on that commitment. Stephen Kinnock MP, Minister for Care, has announced that hundreds of thousands of people, including in Northampton North, 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, and in our community, we’ll see that change. I’m pleased to share that the Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) will deliver 17,826 urgent care appointments.

Residents in Northampton North 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: 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 Northampton North.