Somerset’s deepening NHS dentistry crisis — including in the Burnham-On-Sea area — has been publicly acknowledged by the Government after the Minister for Care, Stephen Kinnock MP, admitted in Parliament that the county is an “outlier” facing “significant problems” with access to treatment.
The admission came during a Commons debate in which local MP Ashley Fox challenged Labour ministers over what he described as worsening access to NHS dental care across Bridgwater, Burnham-On-Sea, Highbridge and surrounding villages.
Ashley told MPs that almost every response to his recent constituency healthcare survey raised concerns about NHS dentistry, with residents repeatedly reporting that they cannot secure appointments or register with a local practice.
He said figures provided to him by the Department of Health show that 4% fewer NHS dental treatments were delivered in Somerset during Labour’s first seven months in office compared with the same period before the General Election.
Addressing the Minister directly, Ashley challenged Stephen Kinnock directly, asking: “The Minister will recall that when he wrote to me on 23 April, he confirmed that under Labour 4% fewer dental treatments were performed in Somerset than in the same period before the general election. If everything is so wonderful, why is dentistry in Somerset worse now under his watch than it was under the last Government?”
In response, the Minister acknowledged the scale of the challenge facing the county, telling Parliament: “Somerset is an outlier. There are significant problems in Somerset due to access to dentistry, for all the reasons we have talked about in this debate, which are particularly acute in Somerset. I have had calls with a senior official from the ICB there to try to figure out what is going on, because it is an outlier.”
Ashley Fox MP said: “Before the General Election Labour repeatedly spoke about fixing the crisis in NHS dentistry. Nearly two years later, the Minister admits that Somerset is an outlier while local people continue to struggle to get appointments.
The Government has had nearly two years to get to grips with this issue. Progress has been far too slow, and residents deserve to see much stronger action.”
During the debate, Ashley also called for reforms to strengthen the dental workforce in rural communities and renewed proposals to explore local training pathways through partnerships involving Bridgwater and Taunton College. He argued that dentists who train in rural communities are more likely to remain and practice there, helping to improve long-term access to care.
Ashley finished by saying: “My residents do not want another consultation that drags on for months without anything changing. They want an appointment with a dentist.”
