MPs in Somerset have united in Parliament to demand urgent changes to the NHS dental contract.

Between them, they demanded reforms to address a ‘Dickensian’ crisis in healthcare, where Somerset has become a ‘dental desert’ with large numbers of residents unable to access NHS dentistry.

Three new practices offering NHS services have opened in the county in recent months, including one in Wellington, but the Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs want the Government ‘to go further and faster’ and put in place a new contract which will retain NHS dentistry.

Coincidentally, the Parliamentary criticism came as the NHS released a statement claiming more people had been able to see an NHS dentist in 2025-26 than in the previous year.

NHS Somerset said there were 52 NHS practices across the county and they had provided three per cent more NHS work than the year before, ‘halting years of declining NHS activity since the pandemic’.

Director of primary care at NHS Somerset, Sukeina Kassam, said: “Improving access to NHS dentistry is one of our top priorities as we know it is hugely important to local people.

“It is great to see our improvement programme is leading to better access and more NHS dental care being provided in Somerset.”

Conservative MP Sir Ashley Fox, whose Bridgwater constituency covers parts of West Somerset, said in the debate he accepted his party did not do enough to address NHS dentistry issues during its 14 years in power, four of which were in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Sir Ashley said: “For meaningful change to be felt by my constituents and patients across the country, reform of the system needs to start being treated as a priority.

“Access to quality NHS dental care should be available to all, not just those in urban Labour constituencies.

“Previous governments, including previous Conservative governments, did not do enough to fix the problem.

“The last Government did take steps, including an uprating of NHS dental unit pricing, but far more needs to be done to address the deeper structural issues in the system.”

Wellington MP Gideon Amos welcomed the additional appointments available in Wellington since last October, but said it was ‘against a background of limited resources and a broken funding system’.

Mr Amos said: “Hard-pressed parents are paying £100 a year per child because they cannot access NHS dentists.

“That grosses up to £4 million spent by parents in my constituency in the last five years.

“In a cost of living crisis, that is clearly unacceptable.

“Increasingly, I, and they, believe we should be prioritising children for NHS appointments, and I urge the Government to consider that in its reforms.”

Care Minister Stephen Kinnock said Somerset was an ‘outlier’ with ‘significant problems’, and promised urgent action would be taken to change NHS dental contracts on top of additional funding.

Mr Kinnock said: “When we came into office, we inherited an appalling situation, not just in dentistry but right across my primary, community, and social care portfolio.”