Barrow patients disappointed by closure of town’s Bupa dental practice
Patients in Barrow have expressed their disappointment at the news the town’s Bupa Dental Care practice will be closing.
Bupa Dental Care recently confirmed the closure of 85 practices across the UK amid ongoing recruitment issues. One of the clinics highlighted by the company is Furness House in Barrow. The practices will all be sold, shut or merged by the end of the year.
Patients have posted comments on social media following the news, with many praising the staff and saying they are gutted that the practice is shutting. As well as losing a fantastic dentist, patients are worried that they will be unable to find a new practice. There are very few NHS places available in Cumbria and many people are already on waiting lists.
In a statement confirming the news, Bupa said that it had experienced difficulties filling vacancies for months, and in some cases, years, which meant that practices were not able to provide the required standard of dental care. The decision has been extremely difficult, the company explained, but in the end, there was no choice but to close a number of clinics.
Thousands of people will be left without a dentist when the Bupa practices close their doors and up to 1,200 jobs could be lost. A Bupa spokesperson said that the firm would try to redeploy staff to other practices where possible to avoid job losses.
As the news filtered through, Barrow residents shared their thoughts on platforms like Facebook, with many saying that this was the only practice they felt comfortable visiting and several people using words like brilliant, fantastic and excellent to describe the team.
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