By Carole Dennett
With the Isle of Wight deemed a ‘dental desert’ as no dentists accept new NHS patients, Isle of Wight MP, Bob Seely, has been accused of putting his career before the needs of Islanders.
On Tuesday, alongside 295 other Tory MPs, Mr Seely voted against a Labour motion calling for an extra 700,000 emergency appointments and a scheme to recruit new dentists to areas most in need, leading to its defeat.
Labour councillor, Richard Quigley said: “Despite recent claims he has been working hard to find a solution to the dentistry crisis, Bob Seely, and other Conservative colleagues voted down the motion, instead backing a government amendment that won’t see any increase in NHS provision in the near future and congratulates the government for the failures in dentistry to date.”
“There can’t be a single Islander that isn’t aware of the dire situation Island NHS dentistry is in” continued Cllr Quigley. “Island dentists are pulling their hair out at the failure of government to remove the barriers to providing NHS dentistry.
“We are in the horrendous position of nearly 12 million people not being able to access an NHS dentist, with tooth related issues a leading cause of children going to A&E.
“It will come as little surprise to anyone that Bob Seely has made a lot of noise, but when faced with the opportunity to do something about it, puts his career before the needs of Islanders”.
“I’ve written to Bob to ask his reasons for depriving Islanders of access to an NHS dentist, hopefully he will have time to reply in between trying to strip the Sussex’s of their royal titles.”
A number of Conservative MPs attended and spoke in the debate, although Mr Seely did not. Only Conservative MPs voted for the government’s amendment. The government regularly puts its MPs on a three line whip to oppose Labour motions, meaning they are under strict instruction to attend and vote to support the Conservative position.
