Hansard

I congratulate Mike Rumbles on securing this evening's debate and on sporting a Highland outfit. I think it is fair to say that the subject of the debate was generated by a meeting of the Grampian dental committee that many of us recently attended. We were stunned by what we heard because none of us had appreciated how serious the situation in Grampian was becoming. Many of the concerns expressed then have been covered by Mike Rumbles and Lewis Macdonald; I share those concerns.

Cost is a barrier to people going to the dentist. One of the fuel protestors who came to the Parliament a few weeks ago said that it cost him £5 for petrol to get to his local dentist. The dentists we spoke to in Aberdeen said that they would get a better financial award as a vet taking out a dog's teeth. One dentist told us that he saw a 76-year-old man who had to pay 80 per cent of his own costs, which meant a £100 bill.

As Mike Rumbles said, we also have to address the very serious situation that is developing in hospital dental services. There are incredible pressures on that service in Grampian, and waiting list problems for all three hospital specialties have gone on for four years. Decades of funding neglect of hospital dental services in the north-east of Scotland is the reason for that. The few consultants who are delivering those services are run ragged; they are covering the jobs of a number of consultants. They say that local dental hospitals are around 40 per cent below the correct staffing level. As a result, patients are being passed from pillar to post. It is not just a problem of overworked consultants: ultimately it is patients who suffer.

Mike Rumbles referred to waiting lists. For restorative treatments, people have to wait 66 weeks for their first consultation and four years for treatment. He raised my next point as well. The British Dental Association and British Medical Association recommend that there should be one consultant for every 300,000 people. Despite that, the same surgeon currently serves the Grampian and Highland areas. That combined area should have three consultants; it has only one.

For orthodontic services, the recommendation is one consultant for every 200,000 people; Grampian has only two instead of the recommended three. For oral and maxillofacial surgery, the recommendation is for one consultant for every 150,000 people; Grampian has only two instead of the recommended four. The conditions that require such treatment are debilitating and people need treatment quickly. It is important to remember that children receive orthodontic treatment at a certain stage in their development and that dentists play an important role in identifying mouth and throat cancers.

As Mike Rumbles suggested, the solution is a dental training facility. We have to build more training posts into the Grampian area and to provide incentives for people to move there to live. At the moment, it is very expensive and that is apparently putting people off.

I ask the minister to support a general review of dental services at general dental practitioner and hospital levels in Grampian. Please do not think that this is just Grampian MSPs coming along and asking for more funding for their area. Ours is a genuine case.