Visiting King Street Dentist
Unfortunately not for an appointment. Like so many residents in Blackpool I can’t get an NHS dentist. Instead, I met with Nick Cheatle, a senior partner at King Street Dentist, for an in-depth chat about the dental crisis in Blackpool.
King Street Dentist is a fantastic facility but accessing it isn’t easy. It’s one of 12 private practices in the town that also holds an NHS contract but none are currently accepting new adult NHS patients. I have been trying and failing to get one for three years. Like other parts of England, Blackpool has been dubbed a “dental desert” a problem I raised in Parliament before it was dissolved ahead of the general election.
Just 38% of children in Blackpool were seen by a dentist in 2023 – down from 57% in 2016 and well below the national average of 54%. Even fewer adults were seen – 36%, down from 56% in 2016. Tooth decay is the biggest primary cause of NHS hospital admissions for children aged between five and 17 in England. Last year 30,000 children and over 70,000 adults were admitted to A&E with tooth decay.
Nick explained the specific problems in Blackpool, how we’ve got to this point and why new dentists are turning to private practice.
A Labour government will:
Provide an extra 700,000 urgent dental appointments as part of a package of measures to rescue NHS dentistry.
Offer incentives for new dentists to work in areas with the greatest need, such as Blackpool.
Shift the focus to prevention and education, and target areas with the highest levels of childhood tooth decay.
Make sure that the NHS contracts that are not fit for purpose are redesigned so that we can solve this crisis once and for all.
Labour’s plans for NHS dentistry are to be implemented alongside our mission to build an NHS fit for our future.
Only 1 in 3 children in Blackpool see a dentist as figures show 12 surgeries not accepting new NHS patients
