Today, I was incredibly proud to welcome Stephen Kinnock MP, the Minister of State for Care, to Plymouth to officially open the brand-new Peninsula Dental Education Centre on New George Street.
This state-of-the-art, £5 million facility has completely transformed the city’s former First Stop Shop into a modern, 13-surgery high-street dental clinic. Run by the Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise (PDSE) in partnership with the University of Plymouth, this hub is a total game-changer for our community. It will provide 12,000 extra dentistry appointments every year for local people, while simultaneously training the next generation of NHS dental professionals.
During our visit, the Minister and I toured the world-class clinical spaces, met with some of the brilliant final-year dental students already working there, and discussed how this model can help us fix the dental crisis both locally and nationally.
Fixing Plymouth’s dentistry crisis is one of my absolute top priorities. This project is incredibly close to my heart—when I was first elected as an MP, one of the very first meetings I held was with the leadership at PDSE to talk about the desperate need for a dedicated, accessible city centre facility just like this. To stand there today alongside the Health Minister and see that vision finally become reality is a deeply proud moment. I am immensely grateful for the relentless hard work, determination, and collaboration from the University, PDSE, and our cross-party local Dental Taskforce over the years to get this over the line.
For too long, thousands of Janners have struggled to access basic NHS dental care, trapped in what has effectively become a “dental desert.” This £5 million hub will make a tangible, immediate difference for people in pain. But it is also a vital piece of the puzzle for our future. By integrating top-tier university learning with hands-on, real-world clinical experience, we are encouraging trainee dentists to put down roots and stay in Plymouth after they qualify.
There is no solution to the dental crisis that doesn’t involve training more dentists. I will keep pushing the Government to expand training places right here in Plymouth so we can recruit and retain the NHS workforce our city desperately needs.