The NHS Somerset integrated care board (ICB) has been striving to increase NHS appointments within ‘dental deserts’ – that is, areas within the county where relatively few people can access an NHS dentist, forcing them to go private or go without treatment.
Health bosses confirmed earlier in September that Wellington Dental Care, based on the Lowmoor Industrial Estate at the town’s northern edge, would begin taking expressions of interest from local residents, with a phases opening beginning in October.
But the practice has now had to pause these expressions of interest after nearly 4,000 patients got in touch asking for an appointment.
Unlike GP surgeries, people needing dental treatment are not registered to a specific practice or treatment centre – a change which came in with the much-maligned dental contracts agreed by the previous Labour government in 2006.
While GP surgeries have specific catchment areas, anyone in the UK can make an appointment with a Somerset dentist – with many local residents often having to travel outside of the county to receive treatment.
Wellington Dental Care will be operated by DentistryForYou, creating up to 12 new local jobs, and will be open for both NHS and private appointments.
As of Thursday (September 18), 3,984 expressions of interest had been received by the practice – forcing it to temporarily pause this facility on its website.
Dr Bernie Marden, chief medical officer at NHS Somerset, said: “I’m pleased to say that more than half of the people expressing an interest come from the Wellington area.
“We know that this practice on its own will not be able to see everyone or solve all the long-standing issues facing local people, but it is very positive for the town and will help thousands more people access NHS dental care.
“The new practice is one of a range of measures we are introducing to improve access to NHS dentistry in Somerset.”
Unlike NHS doctors, dentists are private contractors who are paid by the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) based on the amount of dental work they carry out over a given period.
NHS Somerset has commissioned Wellington Dental Care to provide 20,000 ‘units of dental activity’ (UDA) every year – with different levels of treatment constituting different amounts of UDAs (for instance, a basic check-up will take up fewer UDAs than an extraction or root canal surgery).
Of the expressions of interest received, 53.1 per cent came from the TA21 postcode area (which covers Wellington and the surrounding villages), with a further 36.2 per cent coming from the wider TA postcode area.
DentistryForYou group manager Elizabeth Fernandez added: “We are looking
forward to welcoming patients to the new practice in Wellington.
“Interest has been extremely high and we have had to limit expressions of interest to ensure that numbers do not exceed capacity.
“Once the practice is established, we hope to be able to reopen the opportunity for people to express an interest and we will work with NHS Somerset and other local partners to keep people up to date.”