Following the announcement that a new NHS dentist will take over in the West Wight, practice staff at mydentist have been inundated with calls – but the public are being urged to hold fire on attempting to register as a new patient.
On Friday last week (4th October) staff reported being unable to make bookings for patients suffering with toothache or requiring ongoing treatment as they were too busy taking calls from people hoping to register with the new service.
As things stand though, workers at the {my}dentist practice are in the dark as to who the new owners of the practice may be, if and when patients will be able to register for treatment, and are even unsure whether they will have employment come the end of the month.
The inability of staff to answer the queries from hundreds of Islanders has led to much frustration, with many callers responding aggressively and staff feeling threatened by some who have turned up at the practice in person.
For now, unless you are an existing patient with an appointment or an urgent need for treatment, everyone is asked to remain patient and not contact {my}dentist in Freshwater whilst they await further update from the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board in the coming weeks.
For anyone else, call NHS 111 if you are requiring urgent treatment. Alternatively, you can use the NHS Find A Dentist tool, found at https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist.
As expected, MP Quigley’s self congratulatory photo opportunity with his left wing pal harping on about how well they had done with their petition to keep the surgery open was nothing of the sort.
It has simply been bought and will no doubt open as a private practice under new ownership.
Where’s that? I don’t see a photo of Quiggers?