Meeting offered to resolve dental spat that led to thousands losing their NHS registration
NHS Shetland chief executive Brian Chittick has offered to meet the owners of Lerwick Dental Practice to find a resolution to the ongoing dispute between the two organisations.
The move was confirmed by the chair of the health board, Gary Robinson, when speaking to Shetland News over the weekend.
It coincides with the release of another lengthy social media post by the Market Street practice in which NHS Shetland is accused of acting unlawfully.
In its Facebook post from last Friday, Lerwick Dental Practice (LDP) alleged that communications from the health board’s director of dentistry, Antony Visocchi, contained elements of harassment and threats.
Robinson said that continuing the dispute on social media “is not going to resolve anything”.
“We could carry on with arguments on social media but that is not going to get us any closer to agreements and solutions with the dental practice,” he said.
Robinson added that he hoped a meeting could be arranged soon.
The ongoing and very public spat between the two organisations, in which Lerwick Dental Practice accuses the local health board of putting “unlawful obstacles in place”, has led to the deregistration of 2,000 NHS patients from the independent practice.
A further 4,000 could lose their dental registration by the summer if the dispute is not resolved.
Lerwick Dental Practice has accused NHS Shetland of preventing it from adding a new dentist to its team by “unlawfully” making it a condition that the practice first passes a regular inspection before allowing the new dentist to join.
Earlier this month, Visocchi told Shetland News that a number of significant issues had been identified during last October’s inspection process, which had caused the application process for the new dentist to be “paused”.
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At the time, the director of dentistry said that independent dental practices had to comply with the required standards at all times and it was part of his duties to ensure that this was the case.
LDP said: “The statement made that an existing and operating NHS practice has to pass a three-year practice inspection before any new dentists can join is completely untrue.”
It added that given the chronic shortages of dentists in Scotland and in particular in Shetland, it had expected the health board to make the registration process a top priority.
The dentist who was due to start working in Shetland is now practising in Fife, LDP confirmed.
The LDP statement, which has not been signed by an individual director, also requested an independent body to investigate its complaints against NHS Shetland, and offered to have its Lerwick practice inspected by dental directors from other health boards.
NHS Shetland said it will respond to the latest LDP statement later this week, likely on Wednesday.
Lerwick Dental Practice, which is being managed by Dyce Dental Practice in Aberdeen, has not responded yet to enquiries with regards to the proposed meeting. Requests for interview have so far been declined.
The full LDP statement can be found here.
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