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Two-year wait to see a dentist
TENS of thousands of North Yorkshire residents have been waiting more than two years to see a dentist according to a local health watchdog – who warned yesterday the failure to see patients regularly could lead to a huge decline in treatment.
A report by MPs at the start of the month claimed changes designed to improve NHS dental services in England have failed and the new 2006 contract aimed at simplifying charges and improving access to NHS services had achieved only patchy success.
Now Liberal Democrat councillor Nigel Ayre, who has studied the report and is vice chairman of North Yorkshire's Health Scrutiny Committee, says about 40,000 fewer people in the North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) have seen a dentist in the minimum required time – once in a 24-month period.
The Commons report also underlined a national trend showing that less people in England have access to a NHS dentist and Coun Ayre says the North Yorkshire and York PCT suffers more than most.
It was clear from the report that just 52 per cent of residents living in the area of the North Yorkshire and York PCT are visiting a dentist within the minimum time scale, compared to nearly 54 per cent nationally, he said.
He added that the number of children seeing dentists regularly was 74 per cent in March 2006, but 68 per cent by December 2007. There were also long waits for NHS treatment across the PCT area, particularly York and Selby.
The PCT insisted last night the system was working with nearly 10,000 new patients going onto dentists' books in the last couple of months alone. But Coun Ayre said: "This is a very worrying trend with fewer residents in York visiting a dentist every year.
"The trend is particularly acute among patients who can't register with an NHS dentist in York, as fewer dentists are taking patients due to the Government providing insufficient funding to the PCT.
"The PCT has guaranteed income for dentists in York and North Yorkshire until April 2009. When this ends, it is likely to lead to a huge decline in the number of people getting treatment, and may lead to serious problems.
"The trend is also hitting people on low incomes worst, as these people will not be able to afford private treatment."
Coun Ayre has highlighted his concerns to health scrutiny committee colleagues. However, a PCT spokesman said: "The situation in North Yorkshire is positive. Anyone who wishes to register with an NHS dentist in North Yorkshire can do so by joining our dental database.
"Allocations are constantly being made. For example just last week the PCT assigned 500 people in York to an NHS dentist.
"Since April 1 2008 the PCT has assigned 9,978 people in North Yorkshire. As soon as a practice has available capacity it is able to approach the PCT to ask for new patients from the database.
"To date, since the development of the dental database we have allocated 73,500 people with an NHS dentist across North Yorkshire.
"The database is working and the PCT is making every effort to help people who would like an NHS dentist to be registered with one as soon as space becomes available."
In the past two years the average percentage of people seen by an NHS dentist across the UK was 49 per cent.
"North Yorkshire and York's position was measured at 52 per cent and reflects the higher end of the scale when compared with other regions across the UK," the spokesman added.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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