Scottish dentists have demanded the SNP Government hires more staff to tackle the country’s dental crisis.
The British Dental Association in Scotland has urged the Government to create “a fully funded workforce plan in place so NHS dentistry in Scotland can recruit and retain the dentists it needs.” They added that “no options should be off the table for future reform”.
It comes as research from BBC News showed that six Scottish council areas had no practices able to take on new adult patients within three months.
Argyll & Bute, Dumfries & Galloway, Inverclyde, Orkney, Perth and Kinross and Shetland had no dentists with NHS capacity for new patients. Just one practice in Fife said it was registering NHS patients, with a waiting list of three months.
Three other practices said they were registering new patients but had a two-year waiting list for appointments. Another five said they had waiting lists of at least one year.
Out of the 717 practices that responded to the BBC, 185 offered NHS appointments to adults within three months, with only 26 having appointments within two weeks.
Charlotte Waite, Director of the British Dental Association Scotland, said: “The Scottish Government has made some welcome changes to what is a 20th century model of care.
“It is yet to be seen whether we can really shift the dial from treatment to prevention under this model. No options should be off the table for future reform.
“It is also fundamentally important to have a fully funded workforce plan in place so NHS dentistry in Scotland can recruit and retain the dentists it needs.”
Lib Dem Orkney MSP Liam McArthur said the Scottish Government had to hire more NHS dentists.
He said: “Toothcare should be universally accessible – it cannot just be for those who can afford to go private.
“A concerning number of dentists are no longer offering NHS services because of the low rates they receive for that work.
“There are also clearly issues specific to rural and island areas which are impacting on recruitment and retention. In the past there were incentive schemes to encourage dentists to take up posts in these areas but those incentives are now being spread so thin that any benefits are being undermined.
“The low-margin, high-volume funding system does not work in island and rural settings. Certain treatments are, de facto, loss making unless they are delivered in high numbers, which simply cannot be achieved in places such as Orkney.
“No wonder that the British Dental Association insists that NHS dentistry has been “in crisis for a generation”
“I want to see quality, accessible dentistry in every community across Scotland. Ministers need to rewrite their failed NHS Recovery Plan to include dentistry, prioritise workforce planning and boost the number of dentists taking on NHS patients.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We recognise that in some areas, particularly rural areas, access to dental services remains more challenging. We continue to make available a range of additional financial support locally and this has enabled a newly opened surgery in a Dumfries and Galloway practice to see an additional 500 new NHS patients since August and register another 1500 new patients.
“Almost one year on from dental payment reform, NHS dental services are responding well to the changes with the latest figures showing over 1 million courses of treatment were delivered to patients in the quarter ending June 2024.
“We are urgently engaging with our counterparts across the UK on the actions required to enhance access to services through increased dental workforce capacity, including improved international pipelines.”
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