West Cumbria’s first urgent dental access centre has opened.
The centre is part of a new model of urgent dental care that has so far only been rolled out in Carlisle, Darlington and now, in Whitehaven, based at S J Smith & Associates dentistry.
Each centre aims to increase the provision of urgent and emergency dental care and offers 30-minute appointments that aims to diagnose and treat issues in one session.
The Whitehaven centre is gradually building its service and is expected to be fully operational by the summer.
It will provide 140 urgent dental care appointments per week – around 7,280 per year – for people in West Cumbria.
The North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board launched the first centres in Darlington and Carlisle in June and September 2024.
The pilot is part of the care board’s measures to protect, retain and stabilise local dental practices and dental care.
It comes in response to significant local and national challenges for NHS dentistry, including general dental routine access, workforce recruitment and retention, and financial and regulatory issues.
There are 28 urgent care appointments available at each surgery every day.
Patients can access appointments for urgent and emergency needs via online booking or referral from NHS 111.
The Carlisle centre alone, run by Cumbria Health, has treated over 1,800 patients since its launch, all of which were unable to access a local NHS dentist in Cumbria when they experienced an urgent or emergency dental issue.
In addition to the new Whitehaven centre, the car board has also commissioned a further 1,464 urgent NHS dental appointments from existing NHS practices in north and west Cumbria up to the end of September this year.
An additional 451 minor oral surgeries have also been funded this year for NHS patients in north and West Cumbria.
Whitehaven’s new centre has opened after Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister spent months campaigning for NHS dental access improvements in West Cumbria.
In recent months Josh met with the North East and North Cumbria NHS Integrated Care Board and health ministers and raised the matter in Parliament to lobby for further investment in NHS dentistry in West Cumbria.
Josh said: “I made a commitment before the general election to improve access to NHS dentistry in West Cumbria and this is me and the government delivering on that promise thanks to the decisions made in last year’s Budget.
“For too long local people have been left to suffer agonising tooth pain with little or no access to NHS treatment as fewer and fewer dentists took on NHS patients and urgent and emergency care struggled to cope. This investment begins to right that wrong.
“Now, working in partnership with our Integrated Care Board, who have been really responsive to local needs, West Cumbrians will be able to access this brand new provision, in addition to more appointments at existing practices.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do to rebuild NHS dentistry after the previous government let it go to ruin, but this is a really good first step for those in greatest need.”
The Whitehaven urgent dental access centre operates Monday to Friday between the hours of 9am and 5pm and is accessible via the North Cumbria Dental Direct Helpdesk on 01228 603900.
Anyone who has an urgent dental need outside of these times should contact the NHS 111 service.
