Eight New NHS Dentists Lined Up For Rochdale

Thu, 25 Jun 2009

Dental services in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, will be boosted by the introduction of eight new NHS dentists this year.

As part of a £1.3 million plan to transform dental services in the town, health chiefs have revealed that six new dentists will operate from two new surgeries in the Brimrod and Heywood areas by the end of the year.

Another dentist will be based at an existing practice in Littleborough and the final recruit will eventually be located at the planned Middleton joint service centre.

Bosses at NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale hope the additions will help cut soaring waiting lists in the area, with the new dentists expected to cater for an extra 17,000 patients.

The Trust chiefs are promising that new patients will be allocated on a first come first served basis, but have urged people not to contact the PCT for places as they cannot be booked yet.

Further details, including exact locations and opening times, will be released closer to the when each service is due to open.

Carole Williams, primary care dental lead for NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale, said: "We have been working really hard to bring more dental services to the borough and it’s fantastic that we are able to do this before the end of the year."

"Access to NHS dentistry has slowly improved over the past two years but these new services will accommodate in the region of 17,000 new patients when at full capacity, significantly boosting our local NHS dental services ."

In March, a local newspaper report revealed that 562 children in Rochdale had at least one tooth extracted in 2008, the second worst figures in Greater Manchester.

In response to the finding, PCT bosses admitted that dental health in the town was "poor" with more than a third of under 13’s having gone two years without visiting an NHS dentist .
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