Opening date for new Thurso Dental clinic revealed

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NHS Highland has revealed that a new dental clinic in Thurso should open by October.

The new 1.2 million pound dental facility, which is being constructed on the site of Dunbar Hospital, will hopefully open to the public at the end of September.

Alex Fraser, dental service development manager from NHS Highland is due to outline plans for the new clinic in a report, which will be presented to members of the local community health partnership next week.

Ms Fraser has confirmed that NHS Highland is currently holding negotiations with an unnamed dentist for the lease of the new dental clinic; in this case, no standards lease for a general dental practitioner was available for health boards and as a consequence, the negotiations have been a learning process.

The conditions of the new lease will require 80 percent of the gross income of the practice to come from NHS dental treatment and the clinic must treat a minimum of 6,000 people. All dentists using the practice must also be named on the NHS Highland list and the practice must offer out of hours NHS services.

The tenant has agreed to prioritise patients already waiting for treatment; there is currently a waiting list of 4,700 people and the practice will build up a larger patient list over the course of the first few months after it opens.

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