Uist dental services wishes are being ignored

The Western Isles Health and Social Care Integrated Joint Board (IJB) is seriously at odds with the Uist Locality Planning Group (ULPG), and with all other groups in the Uists who have cared to comment on the protracted decision-making of the IJB with regards to relocation of three community-based dental practices into a hub model of service delivery at Ospadal Uibhist agus Bharraigh at Balivanich.

The original proposals from the IJB go back over three years. The chairman of the ULPG has recently written in an open letter:

‘Consultation – unanimous and community wide; informed opinion – ignored! As chair of the Uist Locality Planning Group for Health and Social Care, I write this having witnessed Uist-wide opinion being completely ignored regarding dental services.

‘What is the point of a whole community, from Berneray to Eriskay, voicing opinion through local meetings in village halls if it is to simply be overruled and ignored?’ (Chair: Theona Morrison.)

Of more concern is the manner by which this decision was reached, not by the IJB but by a report by two chief officers to the September meeting of the IJB. Is this how an important democratic institution should be functioning in the 21st century?

The IJB manages a budget of £60m. The comhairle and NHSWI are engaged in significant budget savings exercises, and in my view a clear conflict of interest exists in terms of them deciding on the future of dental services in the Uists.

Have dental patients and Uist communities been shafted by a centralised institution – the IJB – not fit for purpose?

Andrew Walker, ex-member of the

Uist Locality Planning Group.