EVIDENCE FOR A NEW DENTAL SCHOOL

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 2nd Aug 2007

South of Scotland MSP Jim Hume says that there is compelling evidence for a new dental school in Scotland following ISD Scotland figures published which show there is one dentist for every 2,070 people in Scotland.

Jim Hume said:-

“These figures are very worrying. This is yet more supporting evidence for a third dental school in Scotland.

“Liberal Democrats campaigned hard for the Aberdeen facility during the election and we were delighted when the new administration signalled in Parliament that they intended to honour the previous Executive’s commitment to this project.

The MSP continued:-

“People in Roxburgh and Berwickshire are acutely aware of the difficulties of finding dental care on the NHS. “Dentists are said to ‘go private’ when they stop taking on fee paying NHS patients and quite frankly many people in the Borders who are on limited or fixed incomes simply cannot afford the additional charges associated with private treatment or indeed the dental insurance alone.

“Euan Robson worked closely over the years with NHS Borders and the previous Liberal democrat Executive to secure increased funding for NHS dental provision in the Borders which has seen the recruitment of new Polish dentists. Locally, the old Coldstream Cottage Hospital building will be turned into a dental facility which will hopefully help to ease the burden.

“There is however a lack of new people coming into the service and a new dental school would in part help to solve the lack of dental provision at source by training up new recruits. The unfortunate situation we find ourselves in now was in large part caused when the Conservatives took the decision to close the Edinburgh Dental School in the early nineties.

“I hope that the new school will help to improve the status quo.”