MARTIN GOSS HAILS £750MILLION PLAN TO ‘RESCUE’ NHS DENTISTRY

- almost a third of those available - quit the health service in the last five years.

And of the 153 left striving to cope with surging public demand 20 are over the age of 55 and approaching retirement in the next few years.

As well as the £750m additional funds to offer more NHS dentist appointments the Liberal Democrats are promising to deliver free check-ups for children 

Martin, the Lib Dem candidate for Colchester, said: “People here are going without what should be the very basics dental care, with it now being seemingly impossible to get an appointment.

“It cannot be acceptable that people across our area are forced to wait unnecessarily in pain, not knowing if they will even be able to register with a dentist let alone get an appointment.

“The Conservative party has pushed dentistry to the brink and children in this area are paying the price for their neglect.”

Across England, the number of dentists leaving the NHS has risen by a third in the past four years. A further 3,532 dentists are nearing retirement age, over one in seven (14.6%) of the total dentists in the country. 

The Liberal Democrats would guarantee access to an NHS dentist for everyone needing urgent and emergency care by fixing the broken dental contract system and using flexible commissioning to meet patient needs. And they believe this would entice many dentists back from the private sector

Their plans would set up an emergency scheme to guarantee access to free NHS check-ups for those already eligible - children, new mothers, those who are pregnant and those on low incomes.

Martin added “The Conservative party has pushed local health services and dentistry to their knees and it is people in our community paying the price. Our ambitious plan would help fix the dental contract and tackle the crisis in dental care”