NHS South West Essex is writing to community dental service (CDS) patients, asking for their views about the future provision of the service.
The CDS is a specialised service providing NHS dental treatment (by referral only) to more than 2,000 patients in south west Essex, costing the primary care trust in the region of £1 million each year. The primary care trust is reviewing the community dental service and we want to get the views of people who have accessed it, so that we understand their requirements for dental services in the future.
Until now the service has been specifically for patients who have had difficulty using a high street dentist for a variety of reasons, including patients with a learning or physical disability and those who need treatment under general anaesthetic. But as part of the review we want to consider how we can support high street dental practices to see these patients in locations that are more local to, and convenient for, patients.
We want to make sure that we are spending our money wisely, minimising waste and using the resources we have to best effect. Each of the five existing community dental sites is only used for part of the week, and they are expensive to keep when they are not being used. We want to redirect the money we spend on their upkeep back in to patient care and we are proposing that we reduce the number of sites from which the community dental service is provided, probably from five to three. The remaining clinics would be open more often during the week and would give more flexibility to patients about the date and time of their appointment.
Ian Stidston, interim director of primary care at NHS South West Essex, says: “The CDS currently runs from five sites in Wickford, Tilbury, Grays, Brentwood and Billericay, and each site sees an average of between 3 and 16 patients per week. While each site provides good quality care, accessibility, parking, equipment and the fabric of the building varies.
“We believe that we can provide the same quality of service to the same number of patients for less money if we bring all the services onto three sites and improve accessibility for this group of patients through high street practices.
“We want to hear from patients about how they currently access services and their views on our proposals for the future.”
As well as talking to patients who already use the service, the primary care trust will be asking the dentists who currently run the service about ways of making changes that improve value for money.
A short consultation paper is being sent to patients this week and is also available on our website at www.swessex.nhs.uk/get-involved/consultations/community-dental-service-patients-asked-for-their-views The deadline for responses is Wednesday 13 April 2011.
We will be holding two public drop-in sessions for anyuone that would prefer to talk through the proposals. The dates and venues of these are listed below (parking available):
Thursday 7 April 2011, 1.00 to 3.00pm, Health Education Room, Billericay Health Centre, Stock Road, Billericay, CM12 0BJ
Friday 8th April 2011, 12.00 to 2.00pm, Elite Dental Practice, 14 Civic Square, Tilbury, Essex, RM18 8AD
For more information contact Naz Chauhan on [email protected] or call 01268 245719
