Dental surgery closures

Dental clinics in Uist and Benbecula are to close with staff to be relocated to a central hub within the Balivanich hospital under plans driven by the health board and the Western Isles Integration Joint Board (IJB).

The IJB - which is responsible for the planning of a range of health and social care services - insists the closure option is the best way forward.

The only facility in South Uist shut for good in April, forcing many islanders on a time-consuming near 60 mile round trip to see the next nearest dentist. The health board said the concerns about the quality of the building necessitated an speedy shutdown.

Now Lochmaddy dental surgery will also close with patients facing in similar lengthy trip to see dentist.

The clinic in Liniclate is affected as well.

A delayed consultation exercise will now take place in November.

However, the decision has already been taken for the preferred model to be a single service operating from a renovated Uist and Barra Hospital.

A consultation document does not consider alternative models and consists of a short questionaire focusing on how people will travel to appointments in Balivanich.

The IJB maintains a central surgery in Balivanich will provide a “higher quality clinical environment and a more sustainable service.”

Ron Culley, chief officer of the IJB, said: "Recognising that we are moving to a single site, we would operate an outreach service to disabled people and frail older people, thereby offering a more responsive arrangement for people with mobility problems by providing home visits.

"We believe that there are numerous additional benefits to this model, and we want to use this engagement process to describe those to the public.

“We are also mindful that some people may be unsure of the new model and want to understand people's views as we move through this process.

“A key point we want to get across is that these changes will enable our existing clinical services at Uist and Barra Hospital to be substantially improved."

According to the IJB the closures in favour of a central hub will bring a host of benefits, including:

the development of a single dental team, ensuring better levels of cover during periods of leave or ill-health
a team environment which provides greater levels of peer support, assisting with recruitment and retention and quality of care
on-site support from other health and social care professionals in relation to complex care needs
local sterilisation of instruments and ready access to X-rays not possible in the existing clinics
a visiting oral surgery service

Uist dental surgeries to close in centralisation drive

27 Oct 2017

Lochboisdale clinic shut in the spring