NHS dental provision in the town is at capacity according to Melksham Town councillor, Jon Hubbard.
Speaking at a town council meeting earlier this month about the possible impact on local healthcare provision of a proposed housing development on land south of Woodrow Road, cllr Hubbard explained that residents new to the town are finding it difficult to register as NHS patients.
According to one Melksham dental practice, restrictions caused by Covid-19 and a “large backlog” of cancelled appointments are to blame for the lack of NHS dental registration places available.
“It’s getting more and more difficult to see how healthcare provision is going to be able to cope with the additional development, particularly dental,” said cllr Hubbard.
“If somebody moves to Melksham now and wants to register with an NHS dentist, frankly they can’t.”
Regency Dental Practice’s practice manager, Zoe Britton, told Melksham News, “Due to the restrictions caused by Covid-19, we are limited to the number of patients we can see in our practice. During lockdown we had to cancel a lot of patients, so now find ourselves with a large backlog of our own patients to see and treat.
“We do hope in the future we will again be able to take on new NHS patients but until restrictions ease and we catch up, we are unable to help.”
Market Place Dental Clinic and Melksham Dental Practice were also contacted for comment, but had not responded by the time the paper went to press.
