A DENTAL surgery overwhelmed with patients has cancelled all check-ups — and instead warned them not to eat sweets.
In an email the practice told patients: “Business as usual is simply not possible.”
AlamyThe Bond Street Dental Practice in Rudruth, Cornwall, has been forced to pause all future operations[/caption]
It urged them to do what they could at home by brushing their teeth and avoiding sugary snacks.
The Bond Street Dental Practice in Redruth, Cornwall, said it had been forced to suspend all routine examination appointments owing to the “unprecedented recruitment crisis in the NHS”.
One patient who received the email told The Sun on Sunday: “The message we’ve received is apocalyptic. It’s like they’ve just given up.
What are patients to do if they can’t get check-ups?
“They’re basically saying, ‘Be your own dentist’.
“And they’re telling us to avoid eating sweets and sugary snacks to help them out.
“It’s the second time I’ve lost my dentist now. The first time was because they couldn’t recruit anyone — that was a couple of years ago.”
All routine check-ups at the surgery will be cancelled from May 2 — with emergency appointments being allocated on a first-come, first-served daily basis only.
The email said the move was down to “a lack of dentists willing to work in the NHS and withdrawal of NHS services in other practices, together with the worst recruitment crisis we have known”.
A statement from the surgery read: “We have had no choice but to suspend routine examination appointments to allow us time to complete the backlog of outstanding NHS treatment and to still be able to provide emergency cover.