Dental plans New surgery could treat 1,000 more NHS patients
ANEW dental surgery with capacity for 2,000 places including up to 1,000 new NHS patients - has been proposed as part of a major new development in South Bristol.
The plan would see the existing Omega Dental Practice expand into a new, purpose-built dentist centre, planned as part of the redevelopment of the closed-down HSBC bank building at the end of East Street in Bedminster.
In June last year, the Post revealed the plans for a six-storey ‘co-living’ development to be built on top of the bank and the next door pharmacy, but the original plans back then involved an expanded pharmacy.
Local councillors have intervened, and negotiated a deal that would see a new dentist’s included in the plans.
To happen, it would need the city council’s planning department to grant planning permission for the whole development on the large site of the old bank, the Bedminster Pharmacy next door and the nowempty William Hill betting shop next to Wetherspoon’s, on the corner of East Street and Cannon Street.
And it will also require the NHS to agree to invest in the new development too, and back Omega’s expansion plans.
Omega Dental has been based on the corner of Dean Lane and North Street, just down the road, for the past 30 years, and currently has 6,500 patients on its books. It would relocate to the new ‘health hub.’
At the moment, Omega has no capacity to take on any existing NHS dental patients, and with others in the area also refusing to take on any more NHS patients, and even removing them from their surgeries in the past couple of years, there is a dire shortage of NHS dentists in South Bristol.
Currently Omega has a team of around 12 staff, and it said if the plans went ahead that could double, with two or three new dentists and two or three more visiting specialists.
Developer Tariq Muhammed has submitted a planning application for the development, which would see the health hub occupy the ground floor, with co-living residential shared flats above.
With the new dentists, the planning application now has the backing of local Green councillors Christine Townsend and Tony Dyer, and Labour’s Mark Bradshaw.
When the opening of a new NHS dentist in St Pauls saw queues around the block which sparked national attention, it emerged that the Government had pledged millions to create new NHS dentist surgeries, but much of that money hadn’t been spent, because the way NHS dentistry was funded on a day-to-day basis meant dentists said it was not cost-effective, so they were unwilling to take on new
NHS patients.
Omega Dental’s Stefanos Kyriakidis said the expansion would depend on the backing of the NHS. “This is really exciting,” he said.
“The plans will allow us to have more dentists, more treatment rooms and take on more patients.
“It will - of course - depend on additional funding from the NHS, but we are confident we will be able to take on about a further 2,000 new patients – up to half of those could be NHS patients. These are really significant increases at a time when so many people are desperate for NHS dental care, with the system under enormous pressure,” he added.
“We already have a significant waiting list. We will prioritise family members of our existing patients but hope to be able to take on lots of new patients too. Please ask if you would like to be added to the waiting list - but please also understand this will be at least two years away, and demand will be very high.”