Lib Dems Plan to Solve the Access Crisis
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- Published: Tuesday, 10 June 2025 07:58
- Written by Peter Ingle
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In the 2024 election the Lib Dems went from 11 to 72 seats in the House of Commons, the highest number achieved by a UK Liberal party in over a century. Since then, opinion polls have shown the Lib Dems and Conservatives getting similar scores.
The electoral changes have recalibrated the political blame game played around the dental access crisis. The pre- election default was to blame years of Conservative administration, indeed, this has remained a key part of Labour’s messaging when questioned on the crisis. But this is a strategy that will lose power over time, as already reflected in the BDA’s cooling relationship with the DHSC.
This presents a particular opportunity for the Lib Dems, as long as they can carve out a distinct message.
Recently The Yorkshire Post published a piece by Lib Dem MP Tom Gordon setting out his party’s plans for NHS dentistry. Mr Gordon took his Harrogate seat from a Conservative who had held it since 2010. He has a masters degree in public health and attributes his entry into politics to his mother’s battle with breast cancer.
The MP underlined the seriousness of the lack of access by saying that the damage caused by the access crisis could last for generations. Barely half of children in North Yorkshire saw a dentist in 2024. At a primary school visit he had been shocked to find that children were having extractions due to untreated disease. He blames the outgoing Conservative government for its “longstanding neglect of the NHS,” and while accepting that the pandemic made matters worse, he emphasised that the workforce, funding and contract issues, all predated Covid 19.
Tom Gordon prescribed increasing capacity by training more dentists. He referred to the demographic shock that is approaching as many NHS dentists approach retirement age. The Lib Dem solution requires an injection of £750 million to fund contract changes, “to attract dentists back from the private sector,” the ever popular go-to of flexible commissioning, and an emergency scheme “to guarantee free NHS check-ups to those already eligible.”
This comes against a background of a government burning huge amounts of goodwill with an initial attempt to cut winter fuel support by £1.4 billion, rather than compromising and just seeking to save half that amount by only targeting better off pensioners.
A few days later local papers in Wellington and Taunton were reporting on the latest survey showing the dreadful state of NHS provision in the area. The survey had been carried out on behalf of local Lib Dem MP Gideon Amos.
The keeper may be wearing a red rather than blue kit this year, but Dentistry looks set to remain an open goal for opposition parties.
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