HELENSBURGH dentists have insisted they are committed to NHS services despite a national crisis.

Clyde View Dental Practice reported recruiting a new dentist in the past week while a survey of 7,000 practices around the UK found a vast majority were not offering appointments to adult patients.

The British Dental Association (BDA) said the government needed to deliver urgent reforms.

The BBC survey found that 92 per cent of Argyll and Bute dental practices were not taking new adult NHS patients. They contacted 13 practices with NHS contracts. Neighbouring West Dunbartonshire had a much better rate, with 29 per cent of practices taking on new patients.

In Scotland overall, 82 per cent of NHS practices - 687 in all - were not accepting new adult patients. Of those who weren't taking on new patients, more than a third had an open waiting list and the wait time was a year or longer.

And 79 per cent of practices were not accepting new hcild patients.

Clyde View Dental Practice said there were "challenges" but they were commited to NHS services.

Fiona Wood, chief operating officer at Clyde Munro Dental Group, which owns and operates Clyde View Dental Practice, said: "NHS dentistry continues to face challenges across the UK, Clyde Munro are committed to caring for patients registered at our practice in Helensburgh.

"We continue to invest in the latest technology to improve patient care and reduce waiting times at all our practices across Scotland as well as investing in the very best training for our clinical teams, in addition we have secured a new dentist to join the team at Clyde View Dental Practice within the last week to help us meet the needs of patients in Helensburgh which is great news.”

Helensburgh Dental Practice did not reply to a request for comment.

As well as a shortage of staff, the particular problem is a payment system that doesn't help keep practices aflpat. Many are being forced to turn to private treatments to balance their books. That squeezes out NHS patients.

The BDA said they warned the Scottish Government last month that the future sustainability of NHS dentistry was at risk.

David McColl, chair of the BDA's Scottish dental practice committee, said: “The Scottish Government promised free NHS dentistry for all, but the public are now living with the harsh reality.

“You can’t run a health service on soundbites and slogans. Ministers need to take a long hard look at the evidence, and bring forward the reforms and resources we need to deliver for patients across Scotland.”

The Scottish Government said they had improved the situation compared to that in England.

A spokesperson said: “A new system of interim dental support payments was introduced in April to support dentists to see more patients and to avoid the cliff edge of financial uncertainty for the sector.

“We continue to engage with dentists to develop a future payment system that reflects the challenges of modern dentistry and ensures patients’ needs are at the heart of our NHS dental services.

“We have supported NHS dental teams with an additional £50m of financial support (on top of their normal earnings before the pandemic) and £35m of PPE.

“We are continuing to provide additional funding to the dental sector and remain in a position of relative strength in terms of workforce numbers and capacity.

“There has been a 32% increase in the number of dentists providing NHS services in Scotland in the past 15 years, meaning we now have 54 NHS dentists per 100,000 of the population, compared with 42 per 100,000 in England.”

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