Recent media coverage has highlighted the fact that in towns and cities across the country, sore-toothed patients are wandering the streets, desperately clasping at the door handles of dental surgeries, only to have them disappear before their eyes.
These are the victims of the cruel mirages in the UK’s NHS dentistry desert.
As a district council, our remit doesn’t extend to NHS services, but that does not stop us being a driving force in dental care provision, especially as it was identified as a customer priority in our best value surveys.
So, how does a district council go about making a difference?
Fortunately, Teignbridge has nurtured a thriving Local Strategic Partnership, which includes active and engaged representatives from the public, private and voluntary sectors, all of which are signed up to enabling better public services for the district.
Involving the Teignbridge Strategic Partnership (TSP) meant we were able to work closely with our local Primary Care Trust to supply 15 new dentists for the district, providing care to more than 25,000 NHS patients.
Leading this TSP initiative, and delivering on a key aspect of the community strategy, the council provided its-then existing environmental health building and arranged for six Polish dentists to take residence, creating an entirely new cutting-edge surgery in which to practise and provide a crucial and desperately-needed service, as well as some forward-thinking steps towards encouraging community cohesion.
There is a clause in the lease that restricts the dental practice to NHS work only.
And the response from our customers was immediate and positive. The initiative made Teignbridge one of the best providers of NHS dental care in the South West.
In April 2004, only 37% of Teignbridge residents were registered with an NHS dentist. By May 2006 – some six months after the new surgery opened – this figure had risen to 63%. The delay in receiving emergency dental treatment for unregistered patients has dropped dramatically from six weeks to just 48 hours.
The TSP is now embarking on a new community strategy for 2007-2011.
Outcomes from the last one included not only more NHS dentists, but also award-winning community safety wardens and increased access to computers for rural communities.
Nothing succeeds like success, so partners from all sectors remain dynamic and empowered, poised on a springboard to align the local area agreement, the local development framework and the work of the strategic partnership to deliver on the local, regional and national agendas. n
Nicola Bulbeck is chief executive of Teignbridge DC
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