Dental waiting list hits 15 months - The Scotsman

by LOUISE GRAY, the Scotsman

PATIENTS are having to wait a 15 months for specialist orthodontic work in Glasgow as waiting lists lengthen amid the nation's "crisis in dentistry".

Scotland's largest dental school also had a waiting time of almost a year for restorative surgery. All specialities had an overall waiting time of six months, a rise of 40 per cent since last year.
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Opposition MSPs said the problem was indicative of a dental crisis, as fewer dentists provide national health services and hospitals struggle to recruit consultants.

However, the Glasgow Dental Hospital said the problem was under control after investing in more staff and putting on extra clinics.

The figures were revealed in a parliamentary question from Stewart Stevenson, the Scottish National Party's MSP for Banff and Buchan. The answer from Andy Kerr, the health minister, revealed that the waiting time for orthodontics - usually the fitting of braces - was 64 weeks in June 2005, compared with 30 weeks in the previous year.

Patients waiting for restorative surgery had a median wait of 46 weeks, down from 52 weeks a year before. Overall, the median waiting time for all specialities was 26 weeks, compared with 18 weeks in June 2004.

The Executive pointed out that waiting lists have fallen to 1,492 patients waiting more than 26 weeks for a first outpatient appointment at the hospital in June 2005, a reduction of 64 per cent since 31 December, 2004. A spokesman said: "We are committed to reducing waiting times across Scotland, with particular priority being given to seeing and treating those patients who have waited longest."

But Mr Stevenson said the possibility of speedy treatment in Scotland was "remote indeed", with distressed patients contacting MSPs every day to report that they were unable to get access to treatment.

He said: "It is quite clear that dental services at all levels are facing crisis levels of delays of services." Mr Stevenson said that patients across Scotland are not only waiting longer for secondary care but also finding it difficult to access a dentist in the first place. The average Scot now has to wait more than a month for an NHS dental appointment and travel 24.5 miles to reach the clinic.

He said: "If dental care in the community is ineffective, one of the immediate consequences are that problems escalate and become ones that require hospital care.

"The statistics that we see in Glasgow Dental Hospital is an indication of the failure in general dental care and it shows how if you do not get a grip on a problem when it first manifests itself, it begins to get away from you."

Professor David Wray, the clinical director of the Glasgow Dental Hospital, said there has been an "unacceptable" delay for secondary dental care across Scotland in recent years.

But, he insisted that significant investment of more than £500,000 in Glasgow has turned around the problem. The hospital has taken on a new consultant orthodontist, a new children's dentist, an extra dental hygienist and two part-time restorative dentists. Consultants have also been asked to put on extra clinics, mostly in the evenings.

"We have got the problem cracked and I think it is because of significant investment by health services and because we have very successful in getting consultant staff to respond by doing evening clinics and extra clinics," he said.

"By December, there will not be a single patient in the dental school waiting for more than 26 weeks in any department. We will have completely eliminated our waiting list problems."

However, Prof Wray said that there would be problems treating people in the future unless the Executive invests in dental schools, academia and training up more consultants. Categories [Media] [Health and Community Care]
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SALMOND WELCOMES NEW MOBILE BANKING SERVICE FOR BUCHAN

ROYAL BANK STEPS IN TO GAP LEFT BY CLYDESDALE CLOSURES

Banff & Buchan MP Alex Salmond has warmly welcomed the announcement from the Royal Bank of Scotland that it is to commence a mobile banking service for the Buchan area.

The new service will start in January and will serve the communities of Cruden Bay, Strichen, Maud and New Deer which have all either lost or are about to lose their Clydesdale Bank branches.

Commenting, Mr Salmond – a former economist with the Royal Bank of Scotland - said:

“This is tremendous news for the communities concerned and will go a very long way to address the problems caused by the wholesale withdrawal of the Clydesdale Bank from most of the rural North-east.

“This new service will be a lifeline for those local businesses which have been abandoned by the Clydesdale as well as those personal customers who may be elderly or have their employment within the village.

“I am delighted that the Royal Bank have listened to the approaches which were made to the other Scottish banks and have decided that rural Buchan is worthy of a banking service.”

Local MSP Stewart Stevenson added:

“While the Clydesdale may have taken a commercial decision to close a quarter of their branches and open new outlets in the south of England, at least one of their competitors feels that rural banking has a future and I am thrilled by today’s announcement.

“Aside from the loss of a valuable service, one of the main fears expressed to me by constituents was the knock-on effect that the bank closures would have on local shops as people are forced to bank elsewhere.

“Now however, with the new mobile banking service, there is still every incentive for people to carry on banking in their own community and, importantly, keep spending their money locally.”

STEVENSON CONDEMNS EXECUTIVE'S ‘STAGGERING INABILITY’ IN DRUGS FIGHT

SNP Deputy Shadow Justice Minister Stewart Stevenson MSP today (Friday) condemned the Scottish Executive’s ‘staggering inability’ get to grips with Scotland’s illegal drugs trade.

Mr Stevenson was commenting after an answer to a parliamentary question he tabled revealed that, from 1999-2005, only £5.6 million in assets were seized from drug dealers in Scotland.

The answer to a further question also revealed that, despite the total value of Scotland’s drug trade being commonly accepted as between £3bn and £5 billion, the Executive “does not hold the information necessary to enable a reliable estimate [of the current value of the drugs trade] to be reached”.

Mr Stevenson said:

“These answers show the staggering inability of this Executive to get to grips with the drugs crisis gripping Scotland.

“This is a sorry indictment of the Executive’s justice strategy. It has been accepted in the Chamber that the value of Scotland's drug trade is between £3bn and £5bn, yet in the last six years, less than one per cent of this has been seized, massive sums of money are still flowing into dealers' pockets.

“If the Justice Minister really wants to say that crime doesn't pay then she should set targets that aim to dismantle the profit from drugs.

“This scourge of society must be contained and nullified, however this can only happen with data and facts and at present the Executive are operating in a knowledge vacuum. It is an absolute disgrace that the Justice Minister does not even have the tools to put a figure on the value of the illegal drugs trade.

“The Minister hasn’t got a clue when it comes to knowing how much money Scottish drug dealers are raking in. I therefore urge her to set up a commission to examine the worth of the illegal drug trade in Scotland.”

And, calling on Ms Jamieson to ensure additional support for the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency (SDEA), Mr Stevenson added:

“The SDEA have taken a substantial amount of drugs off our streets. However, a note of caution must be raised as many people believe that the amount of drugs shipments seized only equates for ten per cent of the overall amount of drugs being shipped into the country.

“It is clear to me that the officers of the SDEA are dedicated to fighting the menace of Scotland’s drug dealers. However, the Minister needs to pin her colours to the mast by wholeheartedly supporting the SDEA.

“Real resources are needed so that the officers have the right tools to do their job. We need to hit the dealers where it hurts; in their pockets. The SDEA needs strong guidance and firm financial backing from the Justice Minister. The SNP is committed to this, but is Ms Jamieson?”

NOTE:

The full text of Mr Stevenson’s questions, and the answers, are given below:

3 November 2005
Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the current value of the drugs trade. (S2W-19763)
Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive does not hold the information necessary to enable a reliable estimate to be reached.

1 November 2005
Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the most common assets recovered from drug dealers have been since 1999, showing the monetary value and broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) parliamentary constituency. (S2W-19762)
Colin Boyd, QC: Since April 1999, there have been 248 Confiscation Orders made in criminal cases where an accused person has been convicted of drugs offences. A Confiscation order is an order for payment of a sum of money by the accused.

The most common assets realised to make payment of Confiscation Orders are houses and flats, bank accounts, insurance policies and investments, motor vehicles and sums of cash seized by the police at the time of arrest for the original offence.

The monetary value of the Confiscation Orders made since 1999 is listed in the table below. The information is not held in the format requested, but is recorded by individual police force reporting the drugs case and is shown in that format:

Year (1 April to 31 March) /Number of Orders /Monetary value /Reporting Police Force

1999-2000 15 £807,283.13 Information not held
2000-2001 12 £117,284.75 Information not held
2001-2002 32 £532,812.96 Information not held
2002-2003 30 £560,248.89 Information not held

2003-2004
1 £1,500.00 Central Scotland Police
2 £18,205.47 Dumfries & Galloway Constabulary
1 £11,098.97 Fife Constabulary
5 £166,873.40 Grampian Police
8 £320,695.15 Lothian & Borders Police
5 £64,699.62 Northern Constabulary
7 £270,692.05 Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency
22 £349,312.22 Strathclyde Police
2 £51,438.16 Tayside Police
Total for 2003-2004 53 Orders £1,254,515.04

2004-2005
1 £10,040.00 Central Scotland Police
2 £54,687.79 Dumfries & Galloway Constabulary
6 £104,831.44 Fife Constabulary
4 £319,059.58 Grampian Police
10 £107,916.84 Lothian & Borders Police
3 £17,545.84 Northern Constabulary
7 £187,174.55 Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency
21 £383,420.23 Strathclyde Police
3 £37,029.80 Tayside Police
Total for 2004-2005 56 Orders £1,221,706.07

2005-2006 (Orders up to 20-10-05)
1 £10,000.00 Central Scotland Police
2 £17,300.00 Dumfries & Galloway Constabulary
3 £83,350.43 Fife Constabulary
6 £275,566.59 Grampian Police
9 £283,357.21 Lothian & Borders Police
3 £41,354.39 Northern Constabulary
3 £154,510.34 Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency
20 £217,490.89 Strathclyde Police
2 £55,701.10 Tayside Police
Total to date for 2005-2006 49 Orders £1,138,630.95

Totals from
1999 – 2005
248 Orders £5,632,481.79

Property obtained through unlawful conduct can, without the need initially to secure a criminal conviction, be recovered by the Scottish Ministers through their powers of civil recovery under part 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Civil recovery does not proceed on the basis of a person having been convicted for a particular offence and it is not necessary for the Civil Recovery Unit to specify the particular unlawful conduct which gave rise to the acquisition of an asset.

I can, however, confirm that since part 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 came into force, £988,581.99 has been realised through the powers of civil recovery. A further £1,800,854.61 has been forfeited to the Scottish Ministers through the cash seizure powers contained in the Act.