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Help for desperate patients at last as Streeting targets 700,000 dental slots

- LIZZY BUCHAN

HEALTH Secretary Wes Streeting has promised to deliver 700,000 dental appointments swiftly to help desperate patients.

Mr Streeting said new slots will be rolled out "as a matter of urgency" to address dental deserts where people have no access to NHS care.

The government will keep some of the previous Tory dentistry recovery plan but will ditch what he called gimmicks.

The Mirror has been campaigning for Dentists for All as the number of patients unable to access NHS care tripled to a record 13 million.

The estimate from the NHS GP survey is up from 12.3 million in 2023, 11 million in 2022 and 4.3 million in 2019.

Mr Streeting told MPs yesterday: "NHS dentistry is non-existent in huge parts of the country.