Chief dental officer to visit and assess local provision

Orkney MSP Liam McArthur has again pressed Scottish ministers on the issue of NHS dental provision in the islands.

It was confirmed to him that Scotland’s chief dental officer is due to visit Orkney in October to meet local staff and assess the situation.

In light of figures showing that adult registrations with an NHS dentist in Orkney still lag well below the national average for Scotland, Mr McArthur asked the minister, Michael Mathieson MSP what additional support might be made available to NHS Orkney to help close this gap as quickly as possible.

Figures a year ago, showed that the gap between adult registrations in Orkney compared to the rest of Scotland was around 20 per cent.

“There is no doubt that, thanks to the efforts of NHS Orkney staff, progress has been made over the last year in increasing capacity. However, the gap between registrations in Orkney and the national average has hardly changed,” Mr McArthur said.

“I have made clear to the minister that he must be prepared to approve lump sum funding in the short term if that is what it takes to close this gap in an acceptable timeframe.”