By Bruce Robbins

New NHS dental surgeries were yesterday given the go-ahead by a Tayside health committee in an effort to improve access to dentists for patients in Dundee and Perth and Kinross.

There was also a commitment from the divisional primary care committee to provide two additional surgeries for Angus pending clarification of some funding issues by the Scottish Executive.

However, while the situation in Angus, where there is still some spare capacity in the NHS dentistry system, is least urgent, two new surgeries for both Dundee and Perth and Kinross will just ensure that the service “keeps its head above water.”

Scotland is facing a dental health crisis with patients facing ever increasing difficulties when it comes to finding an NHS dentist willing to take them on.

It is estimated that only half of all adults in Scotland are registered with an NHS dentist and one in eight Scots has not visited a dentist in the past five years.

The fear of the cost of treatment and difficulty in finding and registering with an NHS dentist are the main barriers for most patients.

Across the country, many dentists have moved into private practice, where charges for treatment can be higher than through the NHS.

Although problems are being experienced throughout Scotland, Tayside is considered one of the better areas when it comes to finding an NHS dentist.

NHS Tayside community dental services director Dr Morag Curnow told the committee that there had been “major investment” in Angus with the result that, of the three areas, it was closest to meeting the needs of patients.

Perth and Kinross was under most pressure but the difficulty there was identifying suitable premises for surgeries.

So far, they had met little success in finding premises, although one site has been identified that could be turned into a two-surgery unit.

No premises adequate for a three surgery practice had been found but more properties were being viewed as they became available and potential expansion within Drumhar Health Centre in Perth was being looked into.

Dr Curnow said, “These premises (for a two-surgery unit) may or may not be suitable. There are one or two issues about the site: there is not a lot of parking but it is close to a main bus route.

“It (a new surgery unit) would certainly help in the short term and demonstrate to Perth and Kinross that we trying to help but it would be an interim solution.”

Dundee, Dr Curnow said, was much further ahead with a two-surgery unit at Wallacetown Health Centre being planned and no difficulties anticipated in recruiting staff for it.

The costs of equipping a surgery are estimated at £35,000, with running costs for a two-surgery unit likely to be between £18,500 and £22,700.

A new dental surgery—an “excellent surgery and very well equipped”—is now operational at Springfield Health Centre at Arbroath but a further two surgeries are needed at the centre to solve any issues of access within Angus.

Dr Curnow said the possibility of commissioning mobile dentistry units for use within Tayside had also been investigated.

These would work out at a cost of between £800 and £1000 per week but that was not the main difficulty associated with them.

She said, “They would be suitable for someone to work in as part of their job but they would not attract someone to work in as their job.”

Primary care division finance director Ian McDonald said there were some issues regarding funding for Angus surgeries that had to be sorted out with the Scottish Executive.

Dundee and Perth and Kinross were the main priorities and funding for them would not be a problem, he said.

Committee chairwoman Liz Forsyth asked what the dentistry situation would be in Tayside in ten years’ time and Dr Curnow said that big changes were not expected, with no indication that “huge amounts of money” would be ploughed into the service in Scotland.