As the Isle of Wight’s dental crisis worsens ‘day by day’, the Isle of Wight health and social care committee met earlier this week to discuss how to resolve it.
Last Monday, the Isle of Wight council’s health and social care scrutiny committee discussed the state of the island’s dental crisis.
This followed an increase of pressure on health officials to act on the crisis.
John Nicholson, chair of the committee said the NHS commissioners had made ‘an appalling mess’.
As a result, the meeting resolved that Bob Seely, Isle of Wight MP, would discuss the dental crisis with Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary. In addition, he would request that Steve assesses the roles of those responsible for the planning and delivering of NHS dental services on the island following the ‘complete collapse of the existing structure’.
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Backlog of need
Updates and complaints on the state of dentistry on the island were heard on Monday.
Jo York, the ICB’s interim dentistry lead, recognised the island’s issues, but said ‘there were issues across the country the NHS England team were having to deal with’.
In response to the dental crisis on the Isle of Wight, Jo said they have been able to build relationships with dental practices as well as using local resources to answer the Island’s needs.
She also understood that Covid-19 had exacerbated the challenged facing the island, such as access to dentists, retention and recruitment.
Joanna Smith, manager of Healthwatch Isle of Wight, has called for the Intergrated Care Board (ICB) to to act urgently as the situation worsens day by day.
‘Some Islanders cannot wait six to nine months when they have been waiting years.
‘There is a huge backlog of need. Some people have never been able to access a dentist.’
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