Health / Some NHS patients deregistered from Lerwick dental practice
However the Lerwick Dental Practice has responded by saying it has had ‘ongoing issues’ with NHS Shetland’s director of dentistry
SOME NHS patients at a Lerwick dentists have been told without warning that they will deregistered from the practice next year and will need to find alternative dental care.
In the same text message from Lerwick Dental Practice patients were offered future private care.
The dental practice told patients that the move comes as one of its dentists prepares to leave the company.
The Market Street practice is independently run but has accepted NHS patients as well as private ones.
NHS Shetland said it became aware on 8 November about Lerwick Dental Practice’s decision to deregister some of its NHS patients.
The health board said: “As independent dental practices operate as private businesses, they have the freedom to make decisions about service delivery, including whether they treat patients under NHS regulations and on registering or de-registering NHS patients, which may not involve prior consultation.
“Unfortunately, NHS boards are unable to control these decisions.”
Some NHS patients at the practice were informed that their dentist will be leaving the business.
The message said the practice would cater for their dental needs until early February, and “after this date we unfortunately will not be taking on any NHS patients”.
It then said the patient would then be discharged from their care – meaning they would need to find an alternative dentist.
The message added: “We are currently taking on private patients so if you wished you could become a private patient with the practice.”
On Monday the dental practice posted on Facebook that it is at capacity for NHS patients and was unable to take on any more.
But on Friday the dentists alleged on another Facebook post that the press release issued by NHS Shetland earlier in the week was not accurate.
It said it was releasing NHS patients of Dr Mahnaz Khawari as she has left the practice.
“We are not de-registering all patients at this stage. The reason we have had to do this is because of the director of dentistry for NHS Shetland has withheld the list number of a new dentist we had in place to take over Dr Mahnaz Khawari’s NHS patients,” the Facebook post said.
“We want the patients and people of Shetland to be aware we have been having ongoing issues with the director of dentistry appointed in 2020 making things extremely difficult for us to accommodate and take on new patients,” it continued.
“Unless a new director of dentistry or independent governing body can support and allow us to accommodate the patients of Shetland, we would see no other option but to de-register all NHS patients by June 2025.
“We would like to make everyone aware that we do have the option for the deregistered NHS patients to become private patients or we would open our NHS books further in our Aberdeen and Edinburgh practices.”
The practice added that it would reverse the decision regarding the deregistered patients “if we are appointed a new Director of Dentistry or independent body for NHS Shetland”.
“We did have the plan to go from five dentists up to seven to accommodate Shetland‘s NHS patients this would however not be possible with the current director of dentistry,” the Facebook post continued.
“We feel that Montfield should open their doors and accommodate the deregister patients. We suggest patients contact their local MP and MSP to voice their concerns or go directly to Director of Dentistry NHS Shetland.
“We understand this is very upsetting patience however none of our staff at Lerwick Dental Practice have made this decision so we would like to be in a polite and courteous manner thank you for your understanding.”
NHS Shetland said its own public dental service (PDS) is currently working at almost 50 per cent less capacity than the pre-Covid workforce levels but has more than 70 per cent of the Shetland population registered with the service.
“Therefore, the PDS is only able to provide an emergency/non-routine service for the patients de-registered by Lerwick Dental Practice,” a spokesperson said.
“Across Scotland, the independent practice model provides up to 80 per cent of primary dental care.
“However, we recognise that in Shetland, this model does not deliver the level of service required for the community.”
In order to address the challenges faced in Shetland, the local health board has introduced a new three-phase oral health strategy, which was approved in October last year.
This strategy aims to re-focus NHS dental provision in a way that better serves the community, the health board said.
A spokesperson added: “We are collaborating closely with the Scottish Government and are hopeful that this partnership will bring positive changes to Shetland’s dental services in the near future.
“Although we are not yet at the required level of NHS service provision, progress is being made.
“There is ongoing recruitment of additional dental officers, and, in January 2025, we will also welcome Dr Heather Ballantyne as our senior clinician, who will bring valuable expertise to our team.
“We have also made strides in other areas. Two orthodontic therapists embarked on a training programme earlier this year, strengthening our capacity to provide specialised care, and we recently held further mouth cancer screening clinics in Lerwick and Brae as part of Mouth Cancer Action Month.
“Additionally, our Oral Health Improvement Team, who deliver the Childsmile programme, has achieved excellent results in the National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP).”
The NHS added that Shetland has maintained a high level of decay-free children of primary one age, with an average figure of 80.4 per cent decay-free “evidence that the strong emphasis we put on oral disease prevention is working”.
The spokesperson added: “While challenges remain, please know that we are dedicated to improving NHS dental services in Shetland and will continue to prioritise your health and wellbeing as we move forward with these initiatives.”
Meanwhile private Lerwick practice Family Dental Clinic said in September that due to high demand it was having to close its waiting list for the foreseeable future.
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