Moray councillors call for urgent action as thousands of Elgin dental patients deregistered
Councillors in Moray have called for urgent action after it was confirmed that thousands of dental patients have been deregistered in Elgin in the last two years.
Data shows that more than 5,000 patients in Elgin have been deregistered by practices, mostly those that offer NHS services, in the last 24 months. Most patients have lost access to NHS services as a result of being removed from the registers at South Street Dental Practice and Bishopmill Dental Centre.
The South Street practice has lost 1,895 patients and almost 3,500 patients have been removed from lists at Bishopmill Dental Centre.
Labour councillors have raised concerns about access to local NHS dental services and called for swift action to tackle the crisis. Thousands of people are without an NHS dentist and the situation is getting worse.
Labour group leader at Moray Council, Sandy Keith, said that is has been a year since he first contacted NHS Grampian after being elected to the council. He added that he has monitored the situation closely and rather than improving, it has become increasingly concerning. He called for NHS Grampian and the Scottish Government to work together to put emergency plans into action to improve access.
The crisis in Moray is representative of many areas across the UK, with growing numbers of patients unable to find NHS dental places. Recent statistics show that dentist numbers have fallen, with many deciding to retire, go private, change careers or take early retirement.
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