Madam,

I received a letter from my dentist informing me that they are no longer able to provide NHS dental services at Mervinian House, Dolgellau. On ringing the practice I was unable to establish if the place would be opening again and was referred to NHS Direct Wales who returned my call two hours later and advised that urgent treatment could be dealt with in Dolgellau Hospital. I was told to contact Betsi Cadwalader Health Board to register with a new dentist. Two days later a call back informed me that the nearest dentist willing to take people on a waiting list was in Llanrwst, and that there was a nine-month wait. Otherwise there was a practice in Colwyn Bay or Penmaenmawr, with a wait of two months. This to me seems a totally unsatisfactory situation, as I read from last week’s article that there could be 4,400 other people also needing to register somewhere else.

I do hope the health board resolves this issue soon. I am disappointed to loose Mervinian House as my dental practice as they have always been efficient and helpful and provided a pleasant environment to attend. I can only expect the problem to get worse as most of the recent dentists have been from the EU – eg, Romania, Portugal – and there could be recruitment difficulties after Brexit. Perhaps we are all being forced down the road of private dental care or no care at all. Possibly the Betsi Cadwalader University Health Board would prefer people to seek dentists ‘over the border’.

Yours etc

Joy Hughes

Talsarnau.