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| An x-ray of teeth |
Lib Dem Parliamentary Campaigner for New Forest East, Terry Scriven, has called for more resources to help bridge the growing gap between the demand for and availability of NHS dentistry in the area.
Terry says, “We were promised a much better service in the New Forest area, following representations I made to the New Forest Primary Care Trust a year ago.”
Research undertaken by Terry’s team suggests that the position for many people living in the New Forest area is little improved. Cllr. David Harrison called the widely advertised NHS Helpline to find out if it was possible to register with an NHS dentist in Totton. There was nothing available. The nearest option available was New Milton, a 40 minute car ride away. Okay if you have transport, but very difficult otherwise.
Cllr. Harrison says “I discovered that the Help Line number has been changed to a new number – 0845 050 8345, you wait a while before anyone answers and then you are told there is nothing at all available in Totton. The Operator could not tell me when there might be a chance of registering with a dentist in Totton. All you can do is call back, say once a month”.
Terry Scriven adds “There must be hundreds of people across the New Forest who are experiencing the same problems as the residents of Totton. If you are one of those people email your experience to Terry Scriven by using the feedback form on this website. |
The Dentistry Survey is being carried out across England and Wales by local Patient & Public Involvement Forums. Members of the Hampshire Primary Care Trust Forum will be out and about during August meeting people and obtaining their experience of dental services (NHS & private)
The Survey arises from the number of concerns that have been raised with Forums across the country and is intended to provide hard evidence of the current situation.
The Forums comprise local people (volunteers) with an interest in the service provided by the NHS. For further information on Forums or if you want to volunteer go to www.cppih.org or phone 0845 241 0960.
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Have Dentistry services lost their bite?
Hampshire Patient Forum launches new ‘Dentistry Watch’ Campaign
to ask “What do you think of NHS dental services?”
The New Forest Network of the Hampshire Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Forum has joined forces with PPI Forums across the country to launch a new national campaign. The campaign aims to assess how easy it is for the public to access NHS dental services; patients’ experience of treatment; and the views of dentists themselves.
‘Dentistry Watch’, which is being supported by the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH), has been prompted by a large number of Forums who have identified issues surrounding NHS dental care within their own individual work programmes.
Patients will be questioned throughout July and August and until the beginning of September. Both the local and national findings will be launched at the beginning of October.
The ‘Dentistry Watch’ campaign comes on the back of the highly successful ‘Care Watch’ and ‘Food Watch’ campaigns, which highlighted patients’ views on whether they had been treated with dignity whilst in hospital, and concerns over the quality of hospital food. |
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