by BILL HEANEY
Scottish Labour has raised the alarm as new figures show one in four NHS dentistry patients have gone more than five years without an appointment.
Information obtained by a Freedom of Information request has shown that a quarter of the Scots registered with an NHS dentist haven’t been to a surgery in the last five years – a staggering 1.3 million patients.
This includes an appalling 65,915 people under the age of 18.
This is in addition to the 270,000 patients not registered with an NHS dentist at all.
Scottish Labour has criticised the lack of ideas on dentistry in the Programme for Government in light of these figures.
Scottish Labour Community Health spokesperson Joe Long, right, said “It is deeply concerning that so many Scots are going for years on end without dental care.
“NHS dentistry is at breaking point, and too many Scots are at risk of falling through the gaps – including thousands of children.
“John Swinney’s Programme for Government was an opportunity to set out new ideas to fix these serious problems, but it failed to deliver.
“The Scottish government must wake up to the growing dentistry crisis taking hold in Scotland and make sure that people in every part of the country can easily access affordable NHS dentistry.”
- 1,339,795 (25.4%) of patients of all ages registered with an NHS dentist have not participated within 5 years.
- 65,915 (7.2%) patients under the age of 18 registered with an NHS dentist have not participated within 5 years.
- 270,307 (4.9%) people of all ages were not registered with an NHS dentist.
Source: FOI response from Public Health Scotland.
Maybe folks would do well to look at what is happening with health care in England under Prime Starmer because this year the NHS is being abolished and the 43 health boards reorganised into some 26 integrated care units which will become part of the central government Health and Care department.
And with some 15,000 jobs to be axed in 2027/2028,with concommitant other cost savings it doesn’t take an Einstein to reslze what is happening.
But yes, check out what is happening. NHS England is being abolished!