Politician Tim Farron blasts state of dentistry in Cumbria

The former leader of the Liberal Democrats, who is currently the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, called for action on the current dental crisis across the country. 

Dental practices across the country have shut their doors to new NHS patients, with none of the 12 in Carlisle accepting new patients according to Labour candidate Julie Minns. 

NHS data shows that 295 people were forced to attend A&E at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust for emergency dental decay in 2022/23. 

Mr Farron addressed the dentistry desert in Cumbria in House of Commons on January 9.

He said: "I rise to present a petition on behalf of 2652 of my constituents who declare their concern for the lack of NHS dental appointments in rural areas like ours in Cumbria given that 50% of local children and 64% of local adults do not have access to an NHS dentist. The petitioners therefore requests that the House of Commons urge the Government to increase training places for new dentists, reform NHS dental contracts and make it easier to recruit experienced dentists to fill dental vacancies in rural areas."

On X, formerly known as Twitter, he added: "It's an absolute kick in the teeth that people are forced to either take a two hour round trip to see an NHS dentist, or pay for private dental treatment during a cost of living crisis."

Farron previously presented a letter from one of his constituents in the House of Commons, explaining that students from a Cumbrian school who had Romanian, Polish, Latvian and Ukrainian parents were missing out on education as they were forced to travel back to their parents' original home countries for a dentist appointment, rather than waiting for a local dentist to accept a new patient.

He said: "Let's be clear. There are some children in Cumbria who find it easier to get dental treatment travelling to a war zone, than to access NHS dental care where their parents have already paid for through taxes."