North East faces becoming a "dental desert" with just eight practices welcoming new adult patients

Data compiled by the Labour Party showed that, of the 253 North East surgeries that gave an update, 245 (96.8%) were unable to accept any adult patients. Of those same practices, 164 (64.8%) aren’t accepting any new patients at all.

UK-wide analysis of patient data showed that last year, 4.75 million people were told there were no appointments available or that the practice wasn’t taking any new patients.

According to the watchdog Healthwatch England, these difficulties have led to horror stories of some people forced to pull their own teeth out, with one in ten British people claiming to have attempted their own dental work.

Cllr Kath Nisbet, who recently chaired a scrutiny working group looking at dentistry, said: “This is an ongoing issue in Northumberland and beyond, where people simple cannot access the dental care they need.

“Recently we have looked at Hadston, Widdrington and many other areas in Northumberland were dentists are giving notice and unacceptable travel is then a barrier for local people.”

Labour has said NHS dentistry has “collapsed” and warned “vast parts” of England are now “dental deserts” where no dentists are available.

The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, has also blasted the Government over the difficulties facing the sector.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are making progress to boost NHS dental services and compared to the previous year 1.7 million more adults and 800,000 more children are receiving NHS dental care.

“We fund more than £3 billion of NHS dentistry a year and are taking preventative measures to improve oral health, such as expanding water fluoridation schemes. We have also announced plans to increase dental training places by 40% and recently ran a consultation to better utilise the skills of dental hygienists and therapists.

“Further measures to improve access and increase the number of NHS dentists through our dental recovery plan will be set out shortly.”

The Government also pointed out that 18.1 million adults and 6.4 million were seen by an NHS dentist in the 24 months up to June 30, 2023. These figures represented increases of 10% and 14% when compared to the previous year.