Highland dentistry concerns raised after figures show barriers to access
Less than a third of Highland dental practices are taking on new NHS patients, new figures have revealed.
Just 17 out of 59 clinics across the region are currently registering patients, mostly concentrated in the Inverness and Nairn areas.
The figures, resulting from an audit of Highland dental practices, also reveal that only 12 of these were accepting adult patients without waiting lists or age restrictions.
NHS Grampian also confirmed that the area’s 19 Public Dental Services, created to provide care for thsoe who cannot access general dentistry, are not accepting referrals.
Instead, the health board’s policy asks patients to access the service through a referral from their dentist.
Opposition politicians argued that the new figures showed the scale of barriers facing those in need of NHS dental care in the Highlands, and accused the SNP of privatising services “by the back door”.
Labour MSP Rhoda Grant argued that it was a “failure of government” that some areas of the region, including Strathspey and Badenoch, had been left with no option but to use private dental practices.
“Large parts of the Highlands now rely solely on private dental practices,” she added.
“I do not blame the dentists themselves; this is a failure of government.
“The SNP’s Covid Recovery Plan promised a return to pre-pandemic levels of NHS dentistry.
“Yet today, fewer than a third (28%) of practices are accepting new NHS patients.
“This leaves people facing the difficult choice of paying high costs for private treatment or travelling long distances in the hope of finding an NHS provider.”
However, in a letter to Ms Grant, Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health Jenni Minto said the SNP’s last budget had increased spending on primary dental services by 15 per cent.
She also claimed that, over the course of this parliament, the government had increased funding by 33 per cent.
The minister said that the SNP had also launched a number of new projects to improve dental provision, including through new training and recruitment measures.
Most of the dental practices registering new NHS patients were clustered in the Inverness area.
That includes Croy Dental Practice, Culloden Dental Practice, Highland Orthodontics, Inverness Dental Care, Southside Dental Practice, Stoneyfield Dental Clinic and the Glenridding Dental Practice.
New NHS patients were also being taken on in Ross-Shire, with Easter Ross Dental Care at Invergordon and the Fyrish Dental Practice in Alness accepting new registrations, through the Inchvannie House Dental Practice in Dingwall was operating a waiting list.
In Caithness, the Dunbar Dental Clinic in Thurso and the Bridges Dental Clinic in Wick and the Wick Dental Practice were accepting patients, with the Dornoch Dental Surgery registering NHS patients in both Dornoch and Golspie.