Desperate residents are performing their own dental work because of a chronic shortage of NHS provision in the Bristol region. Councillors said the system was in a “death spiral” with an increasing number of practices going private and dentists leaving the area or the profession altogether.
A foster daughter who moved to South Gloucestershire could not find a dentist and so had to return to Swindon for treatment while a family of Ukrainian refugees even travelled back to their war-torn homeland because they could be seen there quicker, a council meeting heard. NHS bosses admitted there was a “workforce crisis” but they were trying “innovative” ways to improve the situation, including offering more favourable contracts to dentists.
But South Gloucestershire Council health scrutiny committee members said they were not reassured and that wholescale changes were needed. Kingswood ward Labour Cllr Andrea Reid said: “In terms of people performing their own treatment, we are way past that point.
