STEVENSON REITERATES CALL FOR LOCAL DENTAL CRISIS TO BE ADDRESSED

Banff & Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson has urged the recently-appointed Scottish Executive Health Ministerial team to redouble their efforts to address the NHS dental crisis in the North-east.

Mr Stevenson has been campaigning for additional resources to improve dental service provision in the North-east and has raised the matter in Parliament, questioned Ministers and met with health officials.

Responding to Mr Stevenson’s calls, Deputy Health Minister Rhona Brankin said that she shared the SNP MSP’s concerns about access to dental services and outlined measures taken by the Executive to date to address this. The Minister also gave a commitment that the Scottish Executive’s response to their consultation on dentistry provision will include further measures to support NHS dentistry.

Mr Stevenson commented:

“The measures outlined to me by the Minister, which include a new “Golden Hello” package, provision for NHS salaried dentists, and increased allowances and incentives for dental graduates and dentists expanding their provision are to be welcomed.

“However, I remain concerned that while we wait for new dentists to graduate and wait for the new Banff dental centre to be built that people continue to be unable to access dental treatment here and now.

“I made a number of suggestions how this could be addressed in my response to the consultation exercise and I will be pressing the Minister further to ensure that some provision is made for this.”