THE dental crisis facing Dumfries and Galloway has been raised with Scotland’s Public Health Minister.
Galloway and West Dumfries MSP Finlay Carson held a meeting on the issue with Maree Todd last week.
He said afterwards: “The minister and her senior advisers made great play during our talks that additional financial incentives are now being offered to try and stem the flow of tide of dental practices moving into the private sector, and the additional 4500 NAT places that had been made available in recent month. However that positive news has been wiped out by the news that 5000 patients will be de-registered.
“Everything possible must be done to encourage dentists to remain in the NHS and the Scottish Government are tackling this by offering them more cash, but this clearly it is not enough.
“The situation is seriously worrying that even with the offer of additional monies many dentists still remain determined to move down the private practice route. Clearly the Scottish Government must look again to see if they can come up with a more attractive package that will bind dental practices in Dumfries and Galloway to offer services to NHS patients.”
He was told that a dental taskforce is meeting every two weeks and working closely with local dentists to try and resolve the issues surrounding NHS services. It is looking also at reforming the payment system in the hope of keeping more local practices on board.
During the meeting the minister also confirmed that dental practices who de-register NHS patients below a certain level now run the risk of having their annual fees from the Scottish Government reduced.
Mr Carson added: “The only route to treatment for so many people is to pay for it, leaving those who can’t afford it having to put their health at risk. That is totally unacceptable and much more needs to be done.”
