The Invisible dentist queue (From Penarth Times)

The Invisible dentist queue

THE article about the ending of NHS dental facilities at a local dental practice (Queuing up to Register, Penarth Times, March) said nothing about the people who suddenly found themselves without dental treatment, yet who cannot afford to buy it privately.

What happens to them?

I tried to find out.

The recommendation of the dental practice was to phone NHS Direct. I did so and received a recorded menu which told me to telephone the Area Health Board - but did not give the phone number.

I studied the BT Telephone Directory but could find no trace of Area Health Boards. The National Assembly was my next port of call, where a person said that I should phone the Area Health Board, and gave me the number.

Out of interest, I explained that I had been unable to find the Area Health Board in the Telephone Directory and she said that actually it isn't there, nor is it in the Yellow Pages Directory! (I still have no idea why).

I phoned the Area Health Board where a person explained that the information that I was seeking wouldn't be available for two weeks because the results of the new contracts between dentists and the Government are still being analysed.

One local dental practice told me that there is now no dentist in Penarth or Dinas Powys who is taking NHS patients.

This means at the very least, travelling to some part of Cardiff - although another possibility given by this practice was Llantwit Major!

One can imagine some of the people who will have to travel (if, that is, they are fortunate to find a service): elderly people who have no occupational pension; lone parents, people who have disabilities, physical or mental; and people who are sick or unemployed.

I do not know where responsibility for this lies between the dental profession and the government, but what is clear is that the people most affected are those who are poor.

Some of us remember with pride the society that inaugurated the National Health Service - a collective response to ensure that a service was free and available to every person at the point of need.

How much we are losing as a community as we go down the current road that dental treatment is taking.

Phil Kingston

St Luke's Avenue

Penarth