‘Queues ahead’ at new NHS dentists

RoWDy queues for dentists would be repeated around the country if more practices were able to take on new NHS patients, industry leaders fear.

Police intervened this week when hundreds gathered outside a surgery that opened its books to NHS patients in Bristol.

The British Dental Association (BDA) says there are 12million people trying to access a dentist in England and any new appointments are likely to prompt similar scenes.

Labour said that patients have queued because they are ‘desperate’ for care.

A video posted on social media on Monday appears to show police officers telling people the queue had ‘finished’. A crowd gathered outside St Paul’s Dental Practice from dawn yesterday for a third day but were turned away.

The surgery’s operations manager told the group there would be no more walk-in registrations and to register by email instead.

Eddie Crouch of the BDA told Sky News: ‘We’ve got 12million people looking for access to NHS dentistry. So what that (queue) visualises is the sad state the service is in.

‘There are towns across this country where we would see a repeat of scenes we saw in Bristol.

The police might want to thank the Government that budgets are so tight we won’t be seeing many grand openings any time soon.’

The comments came as the Government and NHS published a dentistry recovery plan, which aims to provide 2.5million more appointments.

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said the measures would mean dentists can ‘turn their closed signs to open’ and welcome more patients but critics warn they don’t go far enough.

Dental teams will deliver teeth strengthening treatments to 165,000 pupils in deprived areas.

Dentists will also receive a ‘new patient’ payment of up to £50 to offer check-ups to a million people.