Campaigners welcome plans for new Ipswich dental centre
Campaigners have welcomed plans for a new dental centre in Ipswich.
Members of Toothless in Suffolk have welcomed news of a brand new facility, which will open at the University of Suffolk campus in Ipswich. The group launched during the pandemic to call for urgent action to improve access to local dental services.
Although the project is a step in the right direction, the campaign group has called for more to be done in the short term, with patients across the region struggling to access NHS dental services. Steve Marsling, co-founder of Toothless in Suffolk, said that the new centre won’t benefit patients for several years. He also added that there will be a risk of dentists leaving the area after studying at the centre if appropriate support is not provided.
The new dental centre is part of a project to boost NHS dental services in Suffolk and Norfolk. It will be run as a dental social enterprise and will provide training facilities for dental hygienists and therapists, as well as postgraduate dentists. It is hoped that the centre will encourage more dental professionals to stay in East Anglia to increase NHS capacities. The plans have been described as ‘game-changing’ by Professor Helen Langton, the vice-chancellor of the University of Suffolk.
Mr Marsling suggested that patients will not benefit from the new centre for at least six years and added that there is currently no provision for encouraging dentists to work in the region, with many moving to London or other major cities. Toothless in Suffolk was formed to tackle urgent issues and to prompt the government to take action to ensure that patients can access NHS dental care. Mr Marsling called for a grant or bursary to keep dentists in the area and suggested that the council should introduce a keyworker scheme to support newly qualified dental professionals.
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