By Leeza Clark

A BUILDING programme announced in Dunfermline yesterday to create up to 10 major dental centres in Scotland bridges a gap in the market.

Visiting at the new dental unit at Dunfermline’s Lynebank Hospital, Health Minister Andy Kerr said the news would mean many more people would be able to access NHS dental services.

The £30 million funding will provide a range of dental services and training facilities for students in areas where the service is particularly difficult to access.

The funding is part of the £65 million from the primary and community care premises modernisation programme announced earlier this week.

The £30 million is being made available over 2006-08 and will be allocated through NHS boards bidding to the Executive.

Announcing the programme on his visit to Dunfermline Mr Kerr said, “Improving access to dental services and ensuring that patients benefit from up-to-date technology is vital to ensure that we provide dental services fit for the 21st century.

“No other government in history has invested so much in Scottish dentistry, but record-breaking investment must be coupled with modernisation and reform.

“This investment will be crucial in achieving our goal of bringing more treatment to local centres close to people’s homes, to deliver faster, better treatment.”

As a direct result of this funding, he added that flexible, innovative dental centres and practices would be developed across the country.

In Fife there will soon be a new dental access centre in Kirkcaldy, something the minister said was a great example of the NHS delivering the kind of services that people are asking for.

NHS Fife received funding of £250,000 from the 2004-06 primary and community care premises modernisation programme towards the centre which is due to open at the end of the year.

And the Lynebank unit, which has been open for three weeks, is another project to provide Fifers with dental care—being hailed as an innovative model to ensure a service for dental emergencies and treatment, particularly for those people who are unable to register with an NHS dentist.

The new unit has three surgeries staffed by salaried NHS Fife dentists, dental nurses and support staff.

Around 10,000 appointments are available for patient treatment per year at the unit, which is part of the drive to improve access to dental services across Fife.

To access the service, patients call a 24-hour helpline and are referred for treatment.

The helpline also provides emergency dental call handling for NHS Tayside and NHS Borders and also for parts of NHS Lothian.

The unit impressed the health minister, who said he was in no doubt it would benefit thousands of Fifers.

“The use of salaried dental professionals to staff this service demonstrates some of the benefits of the Executive’s programme to modernise NHS dentistry.

“Health boards across the country now have the power to directly appoint salaried dentists to fill surgeries such as this—and I am delighted to see the people of Fife benefiting from this.

“Facilities such as this, coupled with the record levels of Executive investment in NHS dentistry, will mean that a child born in Fife today will have better prospects for their future oral health than any previous generation,” he added.

But improving the nation’s teeth would not happen quickly, he warned.

“There is no doubt that transforming Scotland’s appalling record on oral health will take some time—there is no overnight solution,” he said.

“However, the action plan for improving oral health and modernising NHS dental services in Scotland, supported with investment in new facilities where they are most needed, will ensure progress,” he added.