West Tyrone Sinn Fein Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Big Freeze over for Strabane NHS Dental Patients

Published: 5 February, 2010

Sinn Féin Councillor Michaela Boyle is confident that no one in Strabane District will be any longer be forced to suffer in agony without access to dental treatment with the two new Oasis Dental Care Practices at John Wesley Street opening for business this week signalling the end of the Big Freeze for Strabane NHS Dental patients.

Councillor Boyle who visited the practices yesterday said,

The opening of these two practices will signal the end of a nightmare for countless people in this District who could not get registered with any of the existing dental practices in the town. This has been particularly the case for NHS patients, many of whom have had to seek out dental treatment in Derry , Limavady, Omagh and even as far away as Enniskillen.

Sinn Féin had been lobbying continuously the Health Minister Michael Mc Gimpsey on this issue and last May when the Minister a £17 million health service dentistry contract to Oasis Dental Care to provide 38 additional health service dentists in access hotspots across the north it was met with a cautious welcome given the number of false dawns there has been.

However, as the doors finally opened yesterday the sense of relief was palpable as large numbers of people flocked in to make sure they were registered.

I would like to re-assure anyone who has still not registered that there is no panic. The contract that has been awarded to Oasis mandates that every surgery is required to take a minimum of 1,500 NHS patients so there should be more than enough capacity to facilitate every seeking to be registered. While we may be not out of the woods yet in terms of the weather- hopefully the Big Freeze for Strabane NHS dental patients is now over.