Renfrewshire Liberal Democrats have today called on the Scottish Government to step up and save NHS dentistry across Greater Glasgow and Clyde, as the party sheds new light on soaring wait times, falling numbers of NHS appointments and a decline in the number of dentists performing NHS work.
Freedom of information requests submitted by the Scottish Liberal Democrats reveal that in Greater Glasgow and Clyde:
Patients waited up to 112 weeks for inpatient or day care admissions in 2022.
The number of NHS dental claims fell by 503,481, with claims falling from 1,242,892 in 2019 to 739,411 in 2022.
The number of dentists performing NHS work fell by 59, from 884 in 2019/20 to 825 in 2022/23.
Responding to the figures, Anne Hannigan, Scottish Liberal Democrat councillor for Paisley Southwest said:
“The Scottish Government is leaving dentistry in Renfrewshire to rot. These figures show that over the past few years long waits have soared, the number of procedures has fallen sharply, and dentists have been lost not just locally but across Scotland.
“The SNP are so obsessed with other priorities that they are failing to focus on the day-to-day issues of people in areas like Renfrewshire.
“When Scottish Liberal Democrats brought a motion to Parliament urging the government to repair NHS dentistry, it was shot down and blocked. We can’t let the nationalists continue to downplay and ignore the crisis.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats are calling for the government to rewrite the NHS Recovery Plan to properly recognise dentists and to reform funding structures to enable many more people to be seen and drive down wait times.”
Local Liberal Democrat campaigner, Grant Toghill, has criticised the Scottish Government for its management of the NHS as new research reveals that there were 6,196 reports of NHS workers being short staffed in Greater Glasgow & Clyde.
