NHS places could nearly double in dental desert
BBCDental provision is expected to nearly double in a town where residents have struggled to get treatment on the NHS.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council has submitted an application to transform offices in Bridlington into a surgery providing as many as 1,700 appointments a week, including about 840 for NHS patients, according to planning documents.
Meanwhile, two NHS contracts, worth a combined total of £6m, are expected to be awarded in March to provide more appointments.
Wheelchair user David Cox, who has to travel to Hull or Beverley to get emergency dental treatment, said a larger practice was "much needed".
The 48-year-old said travelling to get treatment was "very expensive, especially with travel costs".
"Being a disabled wheelchair user and having to pay £100 just to have a check up, it's just too much theses days," he added.
The plans involve converting the Crown Community Centre offices, in Quay Road, into a "Live Well Campus", with the dental practice spread across part of the ground and first floors.
If approved, the plans would allow dental provider mydentist to relocate from an existing surgery in Quay Road to the larger building.
At present, mydentist is the only practice offering NHS dentistry in the seaside resort, after two others closed permanently at the end of 2022. However it is not accepting new NHS patients.
According to the plans, the new premises would have capacity for 17 surgeries, which would "transform dental care in Bridlington".
On Wednesday, the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board published details of two new contracts to provide dental services in the Bridlington area, each lasting five years and worth more than £3m.
One is expected to be awarded to Whitecross Dental Care, which is part of the mydentist group, and the other to Genix Healthcare, which has six clinics in Yorkshire.
The contracts are likely to be confirmed on 3 March and the BBC understands they would almost double the provision already available in the town.
Bridlington resident Micheal Greenwood, 67, said he travelled to Driffield, a distance of about 13 miles (21km), for treatment as it was "impossible" to get an appointment in the town.
"Bridlington's a poor town, people haven't got the money to go private, they rely on the NHS," he added.
Fellow resident Caron Urch said she hoped the new practice would save her money after she previously paid £200 to have a tooth taken out at a private dentist.
She also said her eight-year-old grandson could not get an appointment.
Reacting to the plans, Urch said: "I think it's about time it happened because there's just nothing around here for NHS dentists."
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