“People travel from Cornwall”: we speak to Bristol dentists a year after infamous queue
Hundreds of people waited up to four hours hoping to register
One year ago, in February 2024, Bristol's Saint Pauls Dental made national news when a queue of people formed outside their practice.
Hundreds of people waited for up to four hours hoping to register with an NHS dentist.
A year later, and staff at the practice say the demand is as high as it’s ever been.
Since opening last February, they’ve treated more than 13,000 patients.
Clinical lead Dr Gauri Pradhan told Greatest Hits Radio that people travel from as far as Cornwall for an NHS appointment with them.
“9,827 people came from outside Bristol - Plymouth, Torquay and Southampton for example” Dr Pradhan said.
“They take three-hour drives, arrive at our door and plead with us that they’ve taken a day off, spent money on bus and train tickets and taken their child out of school.
“Massive problems still exist – funding is a still a problem, contracts are a problem, recruitment and retention are still a problem, and access – a massive problem,” she added.
“Since we’ve opened, we’ve seen kids up to ten years old who have never seen a dentist,” said Practice Coordinator Shivani Bhandari.
“You can see how many fillings they require, and parents expect us to do miracles – but we can’t!”
Thirteen million people, or 1 in 4 adults, in England are unable to access an NHS dentist according to the British Dental Association (BDA).
The government has promised to transform the service by pledging 700,000 urgent appointments.
It’s after Health Secretary Wes Streeting paid a visit to Saint Pauls Dental before the new government came into power.
“I have not seen any changes,” said Shivani, “we’ve had one meeting since with the Department of Health and Social Care and I hope the Labour government does something about it and it’s not just false promises.”
250,000 have signed a petition to call for the government to honour its pledge to save NHS dentistry.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:
“This government is committed to rebuilding dentistry, but it will take time.
“We are starting with an extra 700,000 urgent dentistry appointments to help those who need it most and will reform the dental contract to encourage more dentists to offer NHS services to patients.
“We will also introduce supervised tooth brushing for three-to-five year-olds in the most deprived communities.”