Yesterday I met with the Labour Minister of State for Care to lobby for more local dental training places. We have a world-class dental school, Peninsula, but currently only around 5% of its students are local. In many ways it is a victim of its own success, with most students coming from outside the area. These students are then placed into a national allocation system after graduating and most choose to return to their home cities. Expanding the number of places for local applicants would help rebalance this and strengthen our local workforce. I also made sure that the Minister was very clear about our shortage of local NHS dentists.
I’m pleased to be working on this cross-party with the other Plymouth MPs, and I’m hopeful that we will see progress. I will continue campaigning for Plymouth and the wider South West to have more locally trained dentists delivering the appointments our communities urgently need.
