MP Rachel Gilmour will meet acting health secretary Sir Chris Whitty to discuss how to improve the delivery of NHS dental treatment in her Tiverton and Minehead constituency.

Recent statistics show that the Tiverton and Minehead constituency has the worst level of NHS dentist treatment delivery in England, with 382 courses of treatment per thousand people.

Sir Chris Witty, the acting permanent secretary for the Department for Health and Social Care, has agreed to meet with Mrs Gilmour following A Public Accounts Committee meeting on Thursday, February 13,

Other statistics from the House of Commons Library state that in Devon (34.7 per cent) and Somerset (32.2 per cent) the percentage of adults who have seen a dentist in the last two years is currently lower than during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are only 10 dental practices in Tiverton and Minehead which undertake NHS work, in addition to their private clients, and not all those practices are currently taking on new NHS patients.

In the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, Rachel Gilmour (Lib Dem) posed numerous questions to representatives from NHS England, and the Department for Health and Social Care, as well as the Chief Dental Officer, Jason Wong, and Acting Permanent Secretary, Sir Chris Whitty.

Mrs Gilmour highlighted the fundamental issues at the heart of the local NHS dentist crisis, including NHS dentist retention, funding, and discrepancies in dental treatment availability across the UK.

Dentists in the Tiverton and Minehead constituency have also come forward about the problems surrounding NHS 111 patients not being able to access follow up treatment after initial treatment, and the difficulties in accessing NHS contracts from local NHS integrated care boards (ICB).

Following the meeting, Sir Chris Whitty agreed to meet with Rachel Gilmour to discuss how to tackle the crisis in the Tiverton and Minehead constituency. Mrs Gilmour says she will demand that Tiverton and Minehead is made a “top priority”, as the statistics show that residents in the constituency face difficulties in accessing NHS appointments.

Mrs Gilmour said: “I am currently having to write up to four times to the local Somerset ICB, chasing dental contracts.

“Dentists have come to my constituency surgeries and said that they have been offered new NHS contracts but have yet been able to access them.

“What’s more, dentists are leaving the NHS, either closing their practices or taking exclusively private clients. Tiverton and Minehead really is a dental desert, and the disgraceful lack of NHS dental contracts needs to be reviewed and acted upon, so that adults and children can access vital NHS oral treatment.

“I look forward to meeting with Sir Chris Whitty, where I will leave him in no doubt that Tiverton and Minehead must be a priority.

She added: “I hope that Sir Chris Whitty will start this process by communicating with the local NHS integrated care boards in both Somerset and Devon to provide more NHS contracts to our hard-working dentists.”