York Guides

Dentists to treat 20,000 extra people

NHS acts to ease crisis for patients

Paul Jeeves
UP TO 20,000 extra places for NHS patients will be introduced in North Yorkshire in the next two years to counter a dental crisis blighting the area.

Thousands of additional places for patients will be made available in York and Selby to cope with a crippling shortage of dentists which has been highlighted in the Yorkshire Post's Stop the Rot campaign.
Registration rates in York and Selby remain among the highest in the country, and almost 5,000 new patients signed up for NHS treatment throughout June bringing the total to 150,832.
Selby and York Primary Care Trust's directors have admitted they have been struggling to cope the growing demand for NHS places, but were adamant they will have sufficient resources available in the next 24 months.
Head of primary care delivery at the primary care trust Denise Smith said: "The fact that the primary care trust has commissioned additional resources shows how committed we are to tackling the issue.
"We have identified that there is an unmet need for dentistry in the York and Selby area, and we are working with practices to ensure that there is enough resources to meet the demand.
"Within 12 months, there will be a marked difference for people wanting to register for NHS dental treatment."
The latest boost to services in North Yorkshire will see a total of 28,000 new spaces made available for NHS patients by the Selby and York Primary Care Trust by the summer of 2007.
Eight thousand new places have already been introduced, with the remainder phased in over the next two years.
However, questions have been raised over whether the additional numbers will be sufficient to cope with the demand.
Paul Kelsey, 68, who retired from his Selby practice last month after a 42-year career in dentistry, said: "These new places will obviously help, but I cannot see it being so easily resolved. The demand will still be there, and the situation now is the worst it has been throughout the whole time I was involved in the profession."
Under the expansion, five dental surgeries, mostly in York, will handle the biggest rises in patient numbers, with each providing between 3,000 and 5,000 new places.
A number of other surgeries in York and Selby will be taking on smaller numbers of up to 1,000 new patients on their books.
However, proposals to build a new dental suite in York which would have catered for 8,000 places have been put on hold, although the primary care trust's revised plans will only see a shortfall of 4,000.
The new figure of 28,000 was finalised this summer, and NHS cash will be used to pay for the expansion under contracts the Selby and York Primary Care Trust has drawn up with dentists.
Labour MP for Selby John Grogan said: "These extra places cannot come a day too soon for local NHS patients. They reflect the hard work and planning of the health service and dentists in York and Selby. To maintain public confidence, it is essential that these places are delivered on time and to specification."
The Yorkshire Post launched the Stop the Rot campaign in April to highlight the region's critical shortages in NHS dental care.
A survey found fewer than one in six dentists in the region – the equivalent of 16 per cent – was accepting NHS patients for routine check-ups compared with 28 per cent in the previous year.
In York, Wakefield, Craven, Doncaster, Rotherham, Grimsby and Scunthorpe no dentists were accepting new patients while in a city the size of Bradford only five dentists had spaces on their books.