MSP claims Dumfries and Galloway dental patients carrying out "DIY treatment"
dailyrecord.co.ukIt’s been claimed people unable to access NHS dental treatment in Dumfries and Galloway are carrying out “DIY treatment”. A string of practices have either closed or de-registered NHS patients in recent years, with no practices taking on new NHS patients.
A recent survey by the British Dental Association Scotland revealed 83 per cent of dentists have had to carry out treatment on work patients had undertaken themselves.
And Galloway and West Dumfries MSP Finlay Carson claims that is happening across the region. He said: “With tens of thousands of dental patients in Dumfries and Galloway struggling to register with practices still prepared to take on NHS patients some have become desperate. “We have received countless phone calls and letters from constituents seeking urgent help after they performed DIY treatment that has led to even more complications. “People are taking desperate measures because they are in so much agony and unable to get appointments or treatment from qualified dentists.” Mr Carson has written to Scotland’s Public Health Minister Jenni Minto calling for action.
In her reply, she wrote that NHS Dumfries and Galloway currently has a dental task force looking at the problem and an “improved payment system for high street dentists” was launched last year.
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