New urgent dental care hubs to open in Medway
Medway is set to see an opening of dental hubs for the NHS to be able to provide urgent dental care during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The hubs will be located in Rochester and Chatham and will be available to both NHS and private patients.
A total of 36 centres will be set up across the South East by NHS England and NHS Improvement. This comes after having to close all dental care practices because of the lockdown being enforced by the government. Which has left some key workers unable to get urgent treatment.
One key worker who wishes to remain anonymous tells The Canterbury Hub her ordeal,
“I started having serious toothache, when I realised a filling had fallen out. I rang my dentist and they told me there was nothing they could do for me and I should ring back in a week’s time. Considering I am a key worker in a hospital, I’m not sure how my managers would react if I couldn’t come to work if I had an infection in my tooth or gums, it seems pretty silly to me. I have had to buy a temporary filling and do it myself.”
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However, this front-line worker isn’t the only one who has had to take her own dentistry into her own hands, with others facing a similar ordeal.
The hubs are part of a network of 7 urgent dental hubs which have been set up across Kent and Medway. Services will be in:
- Larkfield
- Rochester
- Ramsgate
- Canterbury
- Chatham
- Ashford
- Maidstone
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To be able to access the services you have to ring your dental practice and carry out an over the phone assessment. Only if they believe you need to be treated urgently will you then be referred to a local urgent dental care hub.
Feature Image Credit – H Shaw