Another York dentist is pulling back from providing NHS care.
The Perfect Smile Clinic on Boroughbridge Road, Acomb, has written to patients saying it can no longer provide treatment on the NHS to 6,000 patients
Pre pandemic the clinic was seeing over 10,000 patients, with six dentists and two dental therapists. This number is now down to two dentists and two therapists.
In an email to patients they say: “We have lost majority of our NHS dentists and we cannot seem to find any replacements, despite advertising these vacancies.
“Currently, over 6,000 patients do not have an allocated NHS dentist at the practice. Then there are another 2,000 patients on our waiting list, who have never seen us but need a NHS dentist.
“We will be sending out communication to patients to let them know that we are unable to offer any NHS care to these 6,000 patients.”
As YorkMix revealed last week York Dental Practice at Clifton Moor has stopped providing NHS care.
It means around 10,000 additional York patients are now unable to receive NHS care, in addition to the thousands who are unable to register.
Last month, Healthwatch York published a report showing that only 59% of York residents it surveyed had an NHS dentist, down from 84% in 2018.
Petition launched
Councillor Carol Runciman, executive member for health and adult social care at City of York Council, said: “NHS dental care services have been left underfunded and overstretched for more than a decade now. Covid measures and staffing shortages have only added to the growing problem in York and across the region.
“It is crucial that NHS dental practices locally receive support through the new Integrated Care System and the ongoing reorganisation, alongside an urgent reform of the way dentistry is commissioned and provided nationally to recruit and retain more NHS dentists.”
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Meanwhile York Central MP Rachael Maskell has launched a parliamentary petition urging the Government to step in as a matter of urgency and cancel the current unworkable NHS dental contract, in an urgent effort to halt dental practices moving from NHS work and into the private sector.
She said: “It is shameful that the Government have allowed this situation to occur, and I will not stand by whilst the very services we all rely on are corroded.
“I would urge everyone to sign this petition so that we can show the strength of feeling in York against increasing health inequalities and lead the way to make the necessary changes so that everyone can access free, locally delivered dental health services going forward.”