Slaithwaite woman’s three year wait for NHS dentist

Jul 1 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

NHS statistics show one million people have lost access to an NHS dentist since the Government introduced new contracts for NHS dentists in April 2006.

The Citizens Advice Bureau found 7.4m people have not been to an NHS dentist in same period because of difficulties finding one.

Jason McCartney, Conservative candidate for Colne Valley said: “Increasing numbers of people are not registered with dentists and lots of people’s teeth are rotting away and they are having to go to emergency surgery.

“These statistics show a new element of people going to A&E and talking vital resources with dental inquiries. It’s just another sad sign of the appalling lack of access to NHS dentistry in our area.”

A spokesman NHS Kirklees said: “We have been working with the local dentists to steadily reduce the number of people waiting to become a patient at a dental practice in Kirklees.

“In common with other Primary Care Trusts across the country we have received funding from the Department of Health to increase and improve dental services. We are in the process of allocating funding across the whole of Kirklees to dental practices which are able to take on new patients from the NHS Kirklees dental waiting list.

“Initially priority is being given to areas where there are few dentists and high numbers of people waiting and we expect this initiative to go a long way towards removing the current waiting list.”