Johnson Community Hospital dental surgery will resume full service in 2019, along with a new general practice accepting NHS patients in Spalding.
The NHS will be reopening the Johnson Community Hospital NHS Dental service in January 2019 with a new provider.
“This will be excellent news for Spalding and district residents,” a statement from Healthwatch Lincolnshire said.
The service will be provided by Community Dental Services CIC and will open 8am to 8pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 8am to 6.30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8.30am to 1pm on Saturdays, and 9am to 12.30pm on alternative Sundays (except Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Easter Sunday).
The Healthwatch statement says it will provide routine and urgent care dental treatment to anyone who is not registered with an NHS Dental practice.
Once treated patients will be encouraged to register with a practice for future dental needs, the Healthwatch statement says.
The new Spalding surgery will be operated by JDSP Dental Ltd and its location will be announced in the coming months.
A statement from NHS said when they come into effect from January 2019, the contracts commissioned by NHS England will provide a total of 116,000 ‘Units of Dental Activity’ (UDAs) to NHS patients every year.
UDAs are a measure of the work done during a dental treatment, with a routine check-up counting as one UDA and more complex treatments counting as more. Based on previous evidence, the 116,000 UDAs could be expected to equate to roughly 40,000 patients treated every year.
A new NHS dental services with extended access will be also be offered in Boston from 9am to 5pm with additional 1.5 hours twice a week either early morning or evening and a further 3.5 hours on a Saturday or Sunday.
These services will only close on Christmas and New Year’s Day and Easter Sunday.
Availability of NHS Dental services have been of a concern to Healthwatch Lincolnshire for the past year.
Sarah Fletcher, Chief Executive Officer of Healthwatch said: “On behalf of Lincolnshire residents the announcement this week from NHS England is very welcomed.
“Healthwatch has received an unprecedented number of calls from Lincolnshire residents concerning access to NHS Dental services and this is one great example of how people’s voices can make a difference.
“Healthwatch continued to share all of the comments we received (anonymously) with NHS England and as a result they recognised the need to provide new dental services in Lincolnshire sooner rather than later”.
Di Pegg, Head of Primary Care for NHS England in Lincolnshire, said: “Having looked at the overall picture in Lincolnshire and gained an understanding of which areas are most in need of better access to dental care, we’re delighted to confirm that a range of new NHS practices will be launching in January across the county.
“We’re also pleased to have reached an agreement for extended access NHS dental services to return to Johnson Community Hospital for the long term.”
The statement said the NHS is also ready to invite possible dental services to apply for new contracts in the county.
