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.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article