Pictures of hundreds of people queuing around the block for an NHS dentist appointment have been making the rounds on social media.
St Pauls dental practice in Bristol reopened on Monday after previously operating as a Bupa dental centre, offering people in the area the hope of bagging an NHS appointment.
Queues started to form outside the practice at 10am and by noon, police were dispatched to manage the queues which stretched around the block.
Those towards the back of the queue were told that they were unlikely to reach the front before the end of the day, but many were happy to persevere to ensure they didn’t miss out.
Maria, 80, a local resident, told Bristol Live: “The dentist has been closed for some time. I couldn’t get into any of the other dentists – the appointments were fully booked, the waiting lists were too long.
“One of my neighbours – she’s facing an operation for cancer tomorrow. She’ll be somewhere in the queue. She’s also disabled and can’t stand for very long, but she’s had no choice but to stand.”
The scenes illustrate the poor state of dental services in England.
NHS statistics show that between April 2022 and March 2023, NHS hospitals in Bristol and Weston-super-Mare saw 775 patients with dental abscesses and 290 with tooth decay.
Across England, 83 per cent of dental surgeries were refusing to accept adults as patients seeking NHS care and 71.1 per cent were not accepting under-18s, analysis by the Labour party found.
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