Last week I attended some important meetings in South East Cornwall.

My week started on Monday in Lostwithiel where I attended a public meeting called by the local dentists based in Brunel Quays. They told us that whilst they were committed to provide care through the NHS, they were having issues with funding, fewer dentists and increased costs. As a result they said they are focusing their NHS care on, “children under 18, patients over 80, without complex dental restorations such as dental implants, patients with medical conditions that may impact on their ability to maintain their dental health and patients on the NHS waiting list, and referred patients who need urgent care”.

They stated that their aims in doing this are to “ease the pressure on emergency services by providing quicker dental care to reduce pressure on hospitals and clinics, tackle health inequalities: by focusing on groups most needing dental care, increase access for emergencies: by prioritising patients with urgent dental needs, help dentists earn fairly: dentists have seen their income drop; we want to change that and improve the current dental payment system: by looking at how the system treats high needs patients”.

I am very aware that dentists are having issues with the current system. We need more dentists and we need to review how they are paid through the NHS. Having spoken to many colleagues I realise that this is a national issue. I will be working with them to raise this issue with the government to see what can be done to improve the situation.

On Tuesday I attended a meeting in Torpoint called by the Town Council about their plans for the town. They had various stands around the town hall looking at projects including the Neighbourhood development plan, the 3G Pitch project, town Centre improvements, police station update, tennis courts improvements, the defiance development, the garden development and bike hubs.

It was fantastic to see the range of plans and the work that had clearly gone into all the proposals. I would like to wish them the very best with their plans and have said that I am happy to help where I can.

On Friday it was a real pleasure to attend the assembly at St Neot Community Primary School. It is always good to speak to younger constituents about what I do and to answer any questions they have. I would like to thank the children for taking an interest in what I do and wish them the very best with their studies.

On Saturday I had a stall at the Callington Honey Fair. The Fair this year was a massive success with many stall holders saying that they had done better on Saturday than they had done in previous years.

Many put it down to having the fair on a Saturday rather than the traditional Wednesday. I would like to thank the Lions for organising with help from the company Diverse Events. I would like to thank all the volunteers who helped me man the stall all day. It was an excellent opportunity to speak to many constituents about the issues which effect them including dentistry and the A38 including the Tamar Tolls.

I lastly would like to thank the many constituents who came to talk to me about the issues which they care about.

If anyone has an issue they would like to talk to me about please ring my office on 01579 344428 or email me at [email protected]