HEALTH Secretary Yvette Cooper has been given a 12 months deadline to fix West Somerset’s NHS dental crisis or attend a public meeting to explain why she failed.

The timeline was set by local MP Rachel Gilmour, who has tabled an amendment to the Government’s Health Bill.

If accepted, the amendment would require the Government to fix what Mrs Gilmour said was ‘painfully inadequate’ local NHS dental care within one year of the Act being passed.

But, if the one-year target was not met, the amendment would directly hold to account the Secretary of State and require her to appear before a public meeting in the constituency and explain why it did not happen.

Mrs Gilmour wants a ‘cast-iron commitment’ from Ms Cooper that she will guarantee access to an NHS dentist for everybody who needs urgent care and ensure all local children can have checkups.

Data from 2025 showed the Tiverton and Minehead constituency had the worst level of NHS dental treatment delivery in England.

The constituency saw more than 62,000 children left without a dental appointment in the two years to June, 2025.

Mrs Gilmour said: “The state of NHS dentistry in Somerset is shocking, leaving adults and children in pain without the care they urgently need.

“That is why I have tabled an amendment to the Health Bill demanding the Secretary of State guarantee a dental service fit for our community.

“Yvette Cooper now has a clear choice, back this one-year target to restore local care, or stick her fingers in her ears and pretend this crisis does not exist.”

West Somerset MP Rachel Gilmour has tabled an amendment to the Government's Health Bill to try to improve NHS dental care.
West Somerset MP Rachel Gilmour has tabled an amendment to the Government's Health Bill to try to improve NHS dental care. (Contributed)

Mrs Gilmour’s move came as the Liberal Democrat party launched a campaign for a ‘dental A&E’ in every community, so anybody with a dental issue can receive NHS treatment seven days a week.

The party has pledged a dental rescue package to guarantee NHS dentistry for anybody needing urgent or emergency care, along with checkups for children and vulnerable groups such as new mothers.

It would introduce 200 ‘dental A&Es’ across the country with participating dentists each paid a fixed fee for a number of morning or afternoon sessions when they would see any patients who needed help during those times.

The Lib Dem ‘dental rescue package’, would also return dentists to the NHS from the private sector by reforming the dental contract, and would introduce an emergency scheme to guarantee access to free dental checkups for children, new mothers, pregnant women, and those on low incomes.

Mrs Gilmour has repeatedly raised the ‘dental desert’ issue in Parliament, and in April pressed Ministers directly about a Minehead surgery which had offered NHS Somerset 12 appointments a week for patients without a dentist, only for constituents to miss out despite her chasing the health authority five times.

When last year’s data was revealed, Mrs Gilmour raised it directly with the Chief Medical Officer and Department of Health and Social Care interim Permanent Secretary Sir Chris Whitty, whom she then met to press for West Somerset to be made a priority.