Over 14,000 people on GDP waiting lists in Cornwall
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- Published: Tuesday, 23 May 2017 07:49
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People in Cornwall face a wait of up to 18 months to ‘register’ with an NHS dentist amid growing concerns that health services there are at breaking point. The county has a backlog of more than 14,000 people who want to register with an NHS dentist. Some residents must travel more than 70 miles to find one of the few practices in neighbouring Devon that are still taking on patients.
GDPs there say a shortage of funds was mostly to blame for the lack of access to NHS dental services in Cornwall and across the UK, along with the impact of the Brexit vote. The British Dental Association, which represents dental practitioners, said: “A fifth of NHS dental services in England are being delivered by dentists who trained in the EU and overseas. The choice not to offer them any kind of guarantees ahead of Brexit negotiations raises real questions about the sustainability of this service.” A spokeswoman for NHS England said: “There are no practices able to offer immediate access to a dentist in Cornwall for a routine appointment and we have a waiting list of patients. In some areas, the length of wait may be as long as 12 to 18 months.”
The BDA has blamed NHS quotas for blocking new registrations. The quotas put a limit on “the level of contracted activity that is purchased from practices by the NHS”, which is defined by “the number and complexity of courses of NHS treatment that each practice is commissioned to provide in any 12-month period”. It added that the challenges of providing quality care, necessary investment and coverage for vulnerable patients “require more than a bargain-basement funding model”.
The NHS spokeswoman said there were moves to increase quotas for dentists in the south-west, but a shortage of practices made it hard to make more treatment hours available. She said: “Demand is clearly rising, though the proportion of people who’ve seen an NHS dentist in the past two years is still well above the regional average and we continue to place hundreds of people with practices each month.” She urged anyone having difficulty in Devon and Cornwall to call a helpline. But callers to the helpline last week were told no dentists were available and it was likely they would need to wait 18 months for a place.
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