There will be a 48% increase in dental activity on the Isle of Wight next year, the NHS has said.
In an update paper submitted to County Hall’s adult social care, public health and housing needs committee, NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight said ‘significant new additional contracts’ are being put in place across the region.
Access to dental services is currently ‘notably below national averages’, with only 40% of children and 23 per cent of adults seeing an NHS dentist over the last year, according to the Isle of Wight Council.
Adult social care, public health and housing needs committee members are due to scrutinise Island NHS dental service provision at their meeting this Thursday (30th October).
The NHS report says:
“Significant new additional contracts are being put in place across Hampshire and Isle of Wight, both on a permanent and temporary basis.
“While we appreciate that not all of these improvements will be felt by everyone, we are now able to take further steps and an additional 84,000 Units of Dental Activity (UDA) will be rolled out at practices across the Island throughout 2026.
“As part of this, two new practices will be opened with the rollout of these new contracts, including one in Ryde which is anticipated later this year.
Article continues below this advertisement “The current UDAs commissioned for this financial year on the Isle of Wight is 174,162. An additional 84,000 means there will be a 48% increase in NHS dental activity on the Isle of Wight when these contracts come into effect.”
Scrutiny points to be discussed this Thursday include looking at existing levels of access to NHS dental services on the Island, what measures NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight has taken to deal with the shortage of Isle of Wight NHS dentists and the closure of dental practices and what is being done to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals locally.
Lets hope this will help the sorry state of dental services on the island.
I know people won’t like it, but so many persons who
can afford private dental treatment hog up all
the NHS appointments.
If a person can afford private treatment, they should go
private, therefore freeing up places for those are cannot
afford private treatment.
48% of practically zero is still pretty much zero.