Residents ‘give up urgent operations’ and ‘rip out their own teeth’ as NHS reform needed, say Lowestoft and Waveney Valley MPs Jess Asato and Adrian Ramsay

Residents in Suffolk ‘give up urgent operations’ and ‘rip out their own teeth’ as calls for NHS reform continue, MPs have said.

On Tuesday, several of Suffolk’s new MPs participated in a Westminster Hall debate about healthcare in the East of England.

Jess Asato, Lowestoft’s new representative, began her speech by sharing that several residents had given up on treatment due to long waiting lists.

She said: “The NHS is clearly in crisis, those who can go private do so, while everyone else is forced to linger on long waiting lists.

“My residents are frustrated, sometimes to the point of giving up with waiting for urgent operations and sometimes just to get a GP appointment.”

A common theme throughout the debate was the need for both more funding as decade-long closed hospitals such as Lowestoft Hospital remained without a replacement and others were no longer viable, as well as a wider reform of the health service.

Ms Asato added: “It seems clear that the crisis in the NHS is no longer just an issue of funding and that investment must be coupled with reform in order to fundamentally improve health outcomes.”

Adrian Ramsay, representing Waveney Valley on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, also stood to speak during the debate, calling on the Government to look at all funding options, including increasing taxes on the more wealthy.

He said: “We have seen a decline in our health services and it is becoming harder and harder for people in our villages and market towns to access services.”

Mr Ramsay stressed residents in rural villages and market towns such as Diss, Eye and Halesworth were not only sometimes too far from their nearest hospital, but also ran the risk of the service they needed not being available.

On dentistry, both MPs painted a gloomy picture of the region as the ‘dental desert’ it has come to be labelled.

Ms Asato said: “Where dentists are practising, residents find it impossible to get an appointment.

“I have met and talked to far too many of my constituents who have been forced to rip out their own teeth — it’s happening right across the east of Anglia.”

She also added, among children, poor oral health could lead to social exclusion, resulting in many missing school.

Ms Asato added: “Breaking that vicious cycle is essential — if we can’t improve people’s health, how can we improve their lives?

“Instead of ensuring children get the best start possible in life, we are handing them rotten teeth and rotten chances to succeed.”

Mr Ramsay also said: “We do have the Sahara of dental deserts in the east — this is just not tolerable in the 21st century.”

He also called attention to issues of aftercare, particularly within eye treatments, painting a picture of some private companies lacking post-operative care, for treatments like cataract surgery, which would then have an impact on emergency hospital services.

Mr Ramsay added: “Our rural services, particularly in market towns and villages, are severely affected by the decline in health services.

“Whether it’s dentistry, whether it’s a lack of local hospital services, we need urgent action to address this.”