It's high time Government was held accountable for the crisis in mental health provision.

Sharon Hodgson MP's report - Apr-May 2023 number 160

Click on the picture above to read Sharon Hodgson MP's report - Apr-May 2023 number 160

Reforms to NHS Dentistry debate



Sharon Hodgson spoke in the Chamber on the state of our NHS dentistry system, after the Conservative double whammy of handing out a 8.5% price hike to everyone’s dental costs during the midst of the worst ever cost-of-living crisis – whilst also seeing the closure of the BUPA dental practice in Pennywell.

Everywhere you look you’re paying more and getting less under this Conservative Government.

We cannot accept that dental care becomes a luxury, available only to those who can afford it.

These are political choices being made by the Tory Prime Minister and his billionaire buddies, who have never had to worry about the cost of anything such as this, or understand the effect this record increase will have on the cost-of-living pressures facing ordinary people in the North East.

We need a Labour Government that will prioritise healthcare access for all, clean up 13 years of Tory under-funding and mismanagement, and abolish the Prime Minister’s precious non-dom status, to provide the treatment and dental care that the British people deserve.

We should not have to suffer because of Tory chaos and managed decline, that leaves dental care a luxury for the few.

ECHO COLUMN: Our NHS Dentistry is at breaking point

Patients are paying the price for 13 years of Conservative mismanagement of the NHS.

Yesterday, my colleague Wes Streeting MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, made a scathing assessment of the Conservative Government’s record with our NHS.

New data from the NHS has shown that more people are waiting a month for a GP appointment than at any time since when records began in 2017.

1,988 people in Washington and Sunderland West faced a wait of 28 days or more to see a GP in October alone.

A further 5,503 people had to wait more than two weeks.

The doctor can’t see you now – 15% of people across the North East and North Cumbria who try to make a GP appointment don’t get one, whilst 59,947 are forced to wait over a month.

After all the sleaze, the scandals and the failure, it’s time for proper change.



At long last, Boris Johnson has announced that he will be stepping down as leader of the ruling Conservative party.  And yet, this disgraced, law-breaking Prime Minister is trying to cling to power and wait until autumn to resign as PM.

Sharon Hodgson MP's report - Jun-July 2022 number 152



Click on the picture above to read Sharon Hodgson MP's report.