It has been great to be out speaking to hundreds of local people over the past week. One of the issues many people have said they are concerned about is access to GPs. I share this concern. That is why from the very start of my campaign I have made one of my priorities. This will be via the provision of new GP-led health hubs in both Newquay and St Austell. These are projects I have already been working on with local surgeries and our NHS for some time, and I want to see this through to completion.

With this in mind, I was pleased this week to see that as part of the national General Election campaign, that it has been confirmed that a future Conservative government will commit to allocating £1-billion annually to boost the number of GP appointments across the UK, which will include building 100 new GP surgeries and community diagnostic centres, and modernising another 150. This will provide tens of thousands of appointments each year and this initiative will significantly benefit local communities.

This goes alongside the further expansion of the Pharmacy First scheme, which was successfully piloted in Cornwall and rolled out nationally earlier this year.

I can’t even imagine the heartache of having to take a child into hospital to have their teeth removed. Yet that’s what’s happened to hundreds of children in Cornwall this past couple of years, under a Conservative government which has wrecked NHS dentistry. Tooth decay is now the most common reason for children aged six to 10 to be admitted to hospital.

And that’s on top of well-known issues like nine-year NHS waiting lists, pain-stricken people resorting to NHS dentistry, and dentists closing down without warning – like the St Blazey Dental Practice in Par where I used.

Enough is enough. I’m proud to support Labour’s plan to provide an extra 700,000 urgent dentist appointments and reform of the NHS dental contract, as part of a package of measures to rescue NHS dentistry. We also pledge to incentivise new dentists to work in areas with the greatest need, and focus on prevention so that in the long-term, everyone who needs NHS dentistry can access it.

These changes are part of Labour’s wider mission to build an NHS fit for the future.

We all know that we have a real problem in accessing local health services, in particular our GPs and dentists. It’s true that our local GPs have done some ground-breaking work in reorganising themselves to do more with less but with more houses being built (and yes, we do need more homes) and the promised health centres that are part of new developments not coming on stream we often experience long delays in getting GPs appointments and long waits at local pharmacies. And as for getting an NHS dentist, well, you can forget about it.

Fowey stopped having a working community hospital years ago and Newquay is buzzing with rumour that the Minor Injury Unit will reduce services due to staff shortages.

The Liberal Democrats have a fully costed plan to recruit and train more GPs – and it will be a manifesto promise to have a five year plan to give patients the legal right to see their GP within a week or 24 hours if in urgent need. And only the Liberal Democrats are bringing forward a proper solution, working with experts, industry leaders and care staff themselves, to fix the crisis in social care, once and for all.

• Also standing are Stephen Beal (Reform UK) and Amanda Pennington (Green Party)