New Surgeries Help Waiting Lists

The first two of four new dental surgeries to be opening in west Cumbria has been up and running recently as a way of helping growing waiting lists in the region.

The Maryport and Egremont practices will each cater for 5,000 patients.

The Maryport surgery is located at Brusnwick house, Bridge Stress, and has been converted from dentists. It provides two dentists, three nurses and two receptionists. The Egremont practice is located in Market Place.

A new surgery at the town’s harbourside development in Whitehaven is due to open next month, with another 10,000 places.

The latest surgery to open will be in August, with the Whitehaven practice providing 10,000 places.

These four totals will, in total, provide space for an extra 30,000 people by the end of the year. Since the announcement that they were due to open, 10,000 people have already applied for a place.

An NHS spokeswoman in the area claimed that there were now 26,361 people on the waiting list for placed, compared with 16,500 before they had been invited to apply for the new practices.

The Manchester company Oasis Dental care won the £1.7m contract to provide these new surgeries, and already has 140 practices across the country.

Its chief executive, Justin Ash, said ‘We’re committed to ensuring as many people as possible can access quality NHS dental care in the UK’ and commented on the opportunity of boosting the dental health of those in Cumbria.

The NHS Cumbria’s dentistry commissioner said that people who had been waiting on the list for the longest were given the first opportunity to register with Oasis Dental Care. Patients are given a choice on the practice they wish to attend as letters are being sent out in batches of 1,000.