Dental crisis has reached ‘breaking point’ says local MP
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- Published: Wednesday, 06 March 2019 11:37
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Tim Farron MP, former leader of the Lib Dems, has told his local paper, The Westmorland Gazette, that moves to channel more NHS resources to ease the area’s dental crisis have not solved the problem. He said the crisis was now deepening after it emerged that an offer of increased resources for NHS dental practices to expand and take in more patients had not had a single taker.
“The situation has now reached breaking point,” said Tim Farron MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale. “Over the past three days alone l have received five letters from elderly residents, all in their 80s, asking where they can go for dental treatment, as their current dentist has now gone private. The Government must address this crisis now by investing in making NHS contracts more attractive so that we have a greater number of dentists to tackle the lengthy waiting lists.”
Several residents advised that after being told by their dentists that NHS treatment was no longer available, they had been forced to ‘register’ with dentists a long way away, which caused transport problems and additional stress.
In an attempt to alleviate the problem, health bosses agreed to offer to increase the contracts of NHS practices in the town so they could treat more patients. However, NHS England have now confirmed that no-one took up their offer, with the practices advising that they were already working to capacity.
Mr Farron told the paper that the extra funding was only a short term solution and changes to NHS strategy were required to effectively address the problem. He has now written to the Health Secretary Matt Hancock pleading with him to improve NHS contracts to encourage dentists not to go private.
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