Health Secretary must be accountable for mouth cancer link to lack of dental care

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

The Liberal Democrats are calling for the Health Secretary Steve Barclay to come to Parliament to explain the latest statistics showing the link between dentist shortages and mouth cancer. 

This follows the BBC article published today that revealed there could be a link between the lack of access to dentists and late mouth cancer diagnosis according to the BBC and Oral Health Foundation, which is feared to be costing lives. 

The article revealed that mouth cancer has killed more than 3,000 people in 2021, which is a 46% increase from a decade ago, latest figures obtained by the Oral Health Foundation show.

Commenting on the statistics, the Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said: 

“It’s a damning indictment that the crisis in accessing an NHS dentist is costing lives.

“People should not have to make an impossible choice between paying hundreds of pounds for private care, or going without and risk having a life or death disease unchecked.

“Under the Conservative government, scores of dentists have walked away from NHS work and now we can see the devastating consequences. The government has repeatedly promised to fix this access crisis and repeatedly failed to do so. 

“The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Health Secretary to come to Parliament and finally set out a plan to fix this broken system.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

The BBC article can be found here