Concern is growing in the Outer Isles that the amalgamation of three dental surgeries could leave patients with 70 mile round trips for appointments.

Concern is growing in the Outer Isles that the amalgamation of three dental surgeries could leave patients with 70 mile round trips for appointments.

NHS Western Isles is to consult islanders on the possible closure of the facilities at Lochmaddy on North Uist, Liniclate on Benbecula and Lochboisdale on South Uist.

They would be replaced by a central service at the Uist and Barra Hospital at Balivanich on Benbecula.

The health board says that it has to consider the proposal because of the cost of modernising the existing service.

But the hospital is around 35 miles from the island of Eriskay which is linked to South Uist by a causeway; and almost as far from Berneray which is similarly connected to North Uist.

South Uist councillor Ronald Mackinnon said the dental service was working well in the Uists with one surgery at the north end, one in the south and one in the middle.

??Everybody is happy with it. So why on earth are they going to break it up? They don??t seem to realise the distances some people will have to travel, over 70 miles to and from the dentist.??

He said the extra costs for travel would have be paid on top of any dental charges, by people in an area which is suffering the highest level of fuel poverty in the land. ??It is ridiculous,?? he said.

A spokeswoman for NHS Western Isles confirmed that the health board was considering replacing the dental surgeries in the Uists.

But she said: ??This could reduce professional isolation, improve recruitment and retention, reduce multiple running costs and the costs of instruments, and provide enhanced opportunities for staff development and training."

She said the present dental clinics needed to be upgraded to meet current standards. "In particular Lochboisdale Dental Clinic, which requires significant renovation. All current clinics offer little scope for any increase in size of clinical accommodation to meet standards.??

She said that centralising the service in the hospital would enable the health board to provide high quality services from one location, with scope for future improvements.

But she stressed: ??It is only a proposal at the moment and the local community will be consulted before any decision is taken.??

Meanwhile there are also problems with dental provision in the Argyll islands of Islay and Jura where, where residents have been left with only one part-time dentist since the retirement of the only full-time practitioner last year.

Based on Islay, she is working only four days a week. As a result children and people who are suffering dental pain are being given priority, with others reportedly being told to return next year.

Elizabeth Reilly, NHS Highland??s Assistant Dental Director, said the health board was making every effort to recruit a dentist for the vacant full-time position on Islay.

However the latest recruitment drive had been unsuccessful, so a new dentist would not now be in place by the end of the year as planned, she said.

But islanders say recruitment isn??t helped by the poor state of the dental surgery facilities, a portable cabin in the car park of Bowmore Hospital where patients wait their turn in their cars.