Dentaid to provide mobile clinics in Suffolk
Dental charity, Dentaid, is running mobile clinics in Suffolk this week.
The charity has stepped in to try to plug gaps in NHS provision, with waiting lists growing and a shortage of places across the county. The mobile unit will visit the towns of Bury St Edmunds and Leiston.
Toothless for Suffolk, a campaign group set up by Suffolk resident, Mark Jones, successfully lobbied the council to help with funding for Dentaid clinics amid growing concerns from patients. Leiston was left without any dental practices after two clinics closed in the last 2 years.
Mr Jones described the current situation as a “national disgrace” and accused governments of failing to provide the necessary funding for NHS dentistry. In Suffolk, there are hundreds of people waiting for treatment and many more who cannot get a dental appointment.
Local dentists are volunteering their time to offer free treatment at the Dentaid mobile clinics. The sessions will be open between 10am and 4pm. The team is targeting local people who are struggling with severe or chronic dental pain and patients who need extractions or fillings.
The Toothless in Suffolk campaign group is calling for six key changes to NHS dentistry. These include ensuring that everyone has access to an NHS dentist, reforming the NHS dental contract, increasing funding for underserved areas, free dental treatment on the NHS, an end to privatisation and more focus on preventative dentistry.
This week’s visit will not be the first time Dentaid volunteers have stepped up to help in areas where access to NHS dental care is limited. The charity has already provided mobile clinics in Bury St Edmunds, and it has a wide network of programmes, which boost provision in fishing and coastal communities and underserved areas and help the homeless and vulnerable.
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