Reposted from uk.politics.misc

by DAVID HUGHES, Daily Mail 07:55am 31st March 2005

A pensioner told Tony Blair how she had to pull out seven of her teeth
because she could not find an NHS dentist.

Part-time cleaner Valerie Holsworth made the extraordinary revelation as
the Prime Minister faced questions from members of the public during a
live TV broadcast.

She said she preferred to remove her rotten teeth than to suffer in
agony.

It would be nice for somebody to take them out properly for me," she
told Mr Blair.

The 65-year old mother of seven said afterwards she had pulled out four
of her teeth with her husband John's pliers and three with her fingers.

"I've been in so much pain but I've not been able to find myself an NHS
dentist because the waiting lists are full," she said. "Where I live,
you can only get on the list if someone dies or takes themselves off it
voluntarily."

Double interrogation

The encounter took place at the Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry at the
first of two hour-long interrogations for Mr Blair, one on health and
the other on crime, on Sky News.

Mrs Holsworth told the Prime Minister that in her home town of
Scarborough three dentists had been brought in from overseas - one "went
home with a criminal record. The second one wasn't even qualified and
the third made that many mistakes, they sacked him."

Mr Blair replied: "I can't suddenly just produce more dentists. We have
to train them. We are actually opening new dental training schools and
so on,  it takes time."

DG