Scrutiny councillors have said that more needs to be done to solve the Island’s dentistry problems after there were no takers for a big NHS dental practice on the Island, which could have provided enough capacity to solve the current issues.
At a meeting of the Isle of Wight Council’s health and social care scrutiny committee on Monday night, councillors shared their concerns once again over the state of the Island’s dental sector, following ‘action or inaction’ by NHS England.
Councillor John Nicholson, chair of the committee, said he had been made aware of a private dentist on the Island who was willing to take on NHS patients to tackle some of the issues but the national health body never approached them, saying he was disappointed, frustrated and baffled by ‘the action or inaction’ the NHS has taken and the sooner the commissioning of dental services becomes local again, the better.
Joanna Smith, manager of Healthwatch Isle of Wight, said she could not emphasise enough the significance that the dental crisis was having on Islanders and that it was only getting worse.
The report prepared for the committee by the NHS highlighted a really heart-breaking story for Island families, Ms Smith said, with only 1 in 4 children aged up to 17 being seen by a dentist between July and December of last year.
She added that there was a desperate need to improve the state of dentistry on the Island but the moving of services locally would be a really positive step.
My family were all registered with a dentist on the island , every time we booked a family appointment it kept getting cancelled by the dentists as they were apparently ill , this happened on 3 consecutive times . When we tried to make another appointment we were told that we had been remove as we had not been for over 6 months . 3 years on we’re still on the list waiting for a space .
We complained but nothing came from it .
All dentist and vets are greedy b******s.
Perhaps it would be wise to impose a ‘windfall tax’ on the huge gains developers have made and are going to make by building massive housing estates over the Island.
They are adding to the problem as clearly ALL the homes cannot ever be filled by Islanders.
So they should be forced to pay a large percentage of their gains to fund doctors and dentists.
BUT as the council planners, and developers all have private health care, as it is, they could not care less about us plebs left high and dry.
See them for what they are
Perhaps they should look at how many Dentists are going private ,after claiming all the benefits from the furlough scheme …
.And you couldn’t even get an emergency appt with them ,I know I tried ….
So who wants to be an NHS Dentist,? when they can make more money going private …
Build a tunnel so us, the people on Isle of Wight have more of a choice…
Only if It’s one way otherwise the gain would be lost 100 fold by even more moving here
you already have a choice – a tunnel will only serve to bring across all the other problems that the mainland has – one being the endless procession of caravans that suddenly appear on public parks and car parks then refuse to move.
The solent acts like a natural barrier for a lot of the dross that lives on the mainland, as they do not want to pay the ferry fare to turn up here to commit crimes. Careful what you wish for.
oh and if you think a tunnel toll would be cheap – think again.
The iow council and its social services administration are bringing the dross over ….hence all the drug and violence and car accidents…the problem now is for us Islanders they can’t afford to get off the island
Absolutely
I decided to go private, seen within a week. Excellent service and not expensive at all.
UB, that is all fine and good, but it means all the money we have paid in over the years and continue to pay is then being spent on freeloading scroungers, and foreign imports, so we are paying then twice if we go private.
All those on universal and or tax credits get all their treatment free, as they do prescriptions and their rent and council tax paid for too.
So when your hear them bleat on about claiming food parcels ask them exactly what DO they need to pay for, then ask how much child allowance, child tax credits they get per week.
They only tell you what they want you to hear.
Then the ruse and sympathy is kept going.
You speak alot of sense and yes I agree. I was told i was on a 1 year waiting list so i decided to go private. Of course I don’t want to pay twice however going for a checkup and seeing a hygienist is money well spent. The benefit system is not fit for purpose, it was meant to be a safety net now a large percentage of people treat it as a lifestyle choice.
2% of the population own 98% of the country’s wealth.
Can’t say that I blame them.
Stop picking on the little people and open your eyes and ears.
My routine NHS Check up was cancelled one week before appt by text. I had already chased this appt by telephone in Feb and was told first date available was the end of May. I then rang them and they said my NHS Dentist had returned to Czechoslavakia after their NHS Contract was not renewed. As my Dental Surgery was taken over by BUPA but does treat NHS Patients I am now on an NHS Dentist Waiting List. I’m disabled, retired due to ill health and living on benefits so I cant afford a Private Dentist. I saw an NHS Emergency Dentist last Aug and received excellent treatment so I have no problem about waiting now.