A dentay practice that has been closed for business since it moved to Oxford almost two years ago, has finally been given the go-ahead to accept NHS patients.
After a long wait for funding, the Eurodental Practice in London Road, Headington, will be opening tomorrow.
There are 80 NHS dentist pratcices in Oxfordshire, but only 24 of them have the capacity to take on new patients.
And of the 22 NHS dentists in Oxford city, only six can take on new patients.
Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, which allocates money to dentists for them to provide free or subsidised care, gave the practice the news they would be able to open just before Christmas.
Practice manager Barbara Pearsey said: “We moved into the premises here in 2007 and since then we have basically not been doing anything.
“But we were told we would now have enough funding to start accepting patients from January and have been busy preparing. We are all really happy and looking forward to opening.”
When the practice first moved to Oxford, instead of giving money to new practices, the PCT ploughed funding into existing NHS dentists because it was easier for them to increase capacity quickly.
Ms Pearsey said despite the lengthy wait to start treating patients, staff at the practice had nothing but praise for Oxfordshire PCT.
She added: “They have been absolutely brilliant.
“They must have recognised there was a real need for us in the Headington area.
“We deal with PCTs in other areas because of our other practices, but in Oxfordshire they are definitely for the people.”
Nicky Wadely, service development manager for Oxfordshire PCT, said it had been working to commission additional services from practices as part of plans to improve access to NHS dentistry.
She added: “We have widely publicised the NHS Choices website nhs.uk, which has information about NHS dentists in Oxfordshire, and the PCT dental helpline number 01865 337267 on which patients can contact us if they need further help looking for an NHS dentist."
Eurodental will have two qualified dentists available to accept about 10,000 new NHS patients a year between them.
The surgery opens at 9am tomorrow, and patients will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis.
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