Bath MP urges government to fix city’s “Dental Desert”

10 January 2024

On 9th January, Wera Hobhouse, MP for Bath, joined the House of Commons debate on NHS Dentistry to highlight the ongoing dental crisis in Bath.

After recent statistics revealed that almost half of the children in Bath and North East Somerset were unable to see an NHS dentist last year, the city’s MP urged the government to take the growing issue of ‘dental deserts’ seriously.

Mrs Hobhouse noted that the lack of available NHS dentists were curtailing people’s options to dental care, forcing them to seek private healthcare. She highlighted that this places a huge barrier on many Bath residents needing access to urgent and affordable care.

The MP for Bath also drew attention to a technical issue with the official workplace data which hides the true extent of NHS ‘dental deserts’. Dentists who work predominantly for private clients, carrying out only one check-up a year on an NHS patient are counted the same as a full-time NHS dentist by the official workplace data. As Mrs Hobhouse noted, this makes it difficult to understand exactly how many NHS dentists there are and hides the pervasiveness of the problem.

Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, commented:

“The scale of the NHS ‘dental desert’ in Bath is simply Dickensian and has no place in modern Britain. Many people in our city have no option but to go private. This is not only a health issue, but a serious equalities issue that the government is failing to recognise.

“The Conservatives have shown a total disregard for dental care and as a result the people of Bath are paying the price. They must begin taking this pervasive issue much more seriously.”

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