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Original Feedback for NHS England:

1

Dentistry concerns in EDP

I was pleased to read in today's EDP of your concern about the lack of NHS dental services in Norfolk. I moved from Thetford to Attleborough in 2016 and foolishly informed my NHS dentist of my intended move which led him to remove me from his list. When I moved I was pleased to see that I was only two minutes walk from an NHS dentist. However, when a checkup was due I learned that they were not taking any new NHS patients. Had I still been registered with my former practice a transfer might have been possible. I waited for some time for the situation to improve but it is now four years and that practice is still not taking on new NHS patients. In the meantime I went to the NHS find-a-dentist near you web site, which at the time had a list of local dentists and indicated which had vacancies for new patients. I soon discovered that the information was well out of date. Most had a waiting list of at least two years, or had now closed it. I eventually raised this with my Member of Parliament, George Freeman, who put me in touch with the local Commissioner for dental services, who suggested I go back to the website and phone each of the practices listed there. The response was still the same. I then contacted the NHS England complaints service and spoke to someone who looked at his list of available places and recommended I contacted a practice in Kings Lynn - a round trip of 95-100 miles. When I pointed this out to him he said he didn't know the geography of this area and was unable to offer further help. I have raised this again with my MP and await his reply. It seems to me the problem is not, as the EDP article implies, a lack of dentists; I could get treatment from the same practices tomorrow if I were willing to pay. The problem is that the government is not funding sufficient places to meet the demand and, in my view, chooses not to do so in order to progress its policy of privatisation. It wants people to pay! I have no objection to people going privately, for whatever reason, as my wife does, but those who are entitled to NHS treatment should not be forced into that position. Since its inception the NHS has always been intended to cover dental health in the same way as it does every other area, but the present shortage, which existed and was growing long before the pandemic is the direct result of government policies which have been supported by our local MPs. Thank you for your concern. I am very happy for you to use my experience in any way you wish to support improvements to this woeful service. I have copied this to George Freeman.