I attended the Local Dental Committee Meeting for Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham and Havering on Monday 8th March 2010.
I attended specifically to discuss the matter of the potential reduction in Urgent Dental treatment. Urgent Dental Care was removed out of the Portfolio of the NHS in 2006 under the NHS healthcare ACT 2006. Since then it has been an optional choice for NHS's to retain such services. At the Meeting Sumesh Sennik of Redbridge PCT conformed that a consultation had taken place with residents, however he was unable to provide data on the number of responses or the outcome of the consultation. I know of no-one in Redbridge that has heard of this consultation...? Please inform me if you were aware of any....?
I have been informed that in future emergency dental care will take place at either Whitechapel or South Hornchurch. These A&E's will continue to provide the service as was previously received. No other A&E will be used. A telephone Triage service is bolstered by a face to face triage service that can be received from South Hornchurch or Whitechapel A&E.
Urgent Care within 24 hours will still go to local practices and urgent care 12 hours will go to A&E's at South Hornchurch and Whitechapel. Home visits by local practitioners will no longer be funded and only 20 dentists will be providing urgent dental care treatment during opening daytime hours (in-hours service). This is a major loss of facility when you imaging in previous years local dentists were funded to provide the service.
Such loss of services will impact on our most vulnerable groups in particular those with lack of mobility who can no longer receive treatment at home. Concerns were raised about the quality of telephone triage services that will be facilitated by dental assistants, rather than qualified dentists. Moreover there seems to be quite a few teething problems with the service.
I cannot confirm how long Emergency and Urgent dental care will be addressed by the above PCT's as the Government has now given them freedom of choice to continue or discontinue the services at a whim..
I attended specifically to discuss the matter of the potential reduction in Urgent Dental treatment. Urgent Dental Care was removed out of the Portfolio of the NHS in 2006 under the NHS healthcare ACT 2006. Since then it has been an optional choice for NHS's to retain such services. At the Meeting Sumesh Sennik of Redbridge PCT conformed that a consultation had taken place with residents, however he was unable to provide data on the number of responses or the outcome of the consultation. I know of no-one in Redbridge that has heard of this consultation...? Please inform me if you were aware of any....?
I have been informed that in future emergency dental care will take place at either Whitechapel or South Hornchurch. These A&E's will continue to provide the service as was previously received. No other A&E will be used. A telephone Triage service is bolstered by a face to face triage service that can be received from South Hornchurch or Whitechapel A&E.
Urgent Care within 24 hours will still go to local practices and urgent care 12 hours will go to A&E's at South Hornchurch and Whitechapel. Home visits by local practitioners will no longer be funded and only 20 dentists will be providing urgent dental care treatment during opening daytime hours (in-hours service). This is a major loss of facility when you imaging in previous years local dentists were funded to provide the service.
Such loss of services will impact on our most vulnerable groups in particular those with lack of mobility who can no longer receive treatment at home. Concerns were raised about the quality of telephone triage services that will be facilitated by dental assistants, rather than qualified dentists. Moreover there seems to be quite a few teething problems with the service.
I cannot confirm how long Emergency and Urgent dental care will be addressed by the above PCT's as the Government has now given them freedom of choice to continue or discontinue the services at a whim..
My only advice is considering the very expensive costs of private dental care, that residents remove sugar and any other enamel-corroding food products, out of their diets. You will also have to pay out the burdensome costs of dental insurance and pray for good fortune fpr your teeth. This is a tongue in cheek comment, however, sooner rather than later, we could find that residents will have the offer of no treatment at all under the NHS for urgent or emergency dental care.
In the meanwhile we will have to suffer the ignominy of travel to Whitechapel or South Hornchurch as our PCT feel this is the best option for us. There again, our children will be born in Romford and and our other Emergency treating will be at Queens in Romford too.
Soon moving to another borough will be our only option, unless we keep campaigning against these huge health service losses!
Owwch! You're a pain in the ****.
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