Bristol dentist queue: People told to leave as 'full up' practice stops taking new patients

People were told to go home after the practice reached capacity. Credit: BPM Media

People have been told to go home and stop queueing to register at an NHS dental practice in Bristol.

The St Pauls dentist reopened on Monday and soon hundreds of people were lining up to get their names on the books.

Today, prospective patients waited outside the practice on Ashley Road, hoping that they would be admitted.

Among them was Bristol's poet laureate Miles Chambers, but he found himself a couple of places behind this morning’s cut off point.

Today, prospective patients waited outside the practice on Ashley Road, hoping that they would be admitted. Credit: PA Images

He said: "It was only when my teeth had gone bad that I realised how important it is to me and how it affects you.

"When they fell out and were going bad, I felt really disempowered. It's been frustrating, trying to get on."

One hopeful patient said he had queued in the rain until 5 o'clock the previous day, before the practice announced they were closing their books for the day.

Dr Gauri Pradhan said the number of people lining up had put pressure on staff in the practice.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting came down to see the queue for himself Credit: BPM Media

"Yesterday we had to say no to loads of people after 5pm and we're going to say no to loads of people today because our books are already getting full and we have to give treatment time to the patients we have enrolled," she said.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting MP had travelled to Bristol to see the queue for himself. He said the government needed to do better.

  • Health Secretary Victoria Atkins says the government plans to attract more dentists to the NHS

"Yes, they've copied the emergency package Labour put forward but they've neglected the fundamental argument Labour's been making, that unless you reform the NHS dentistry contract, and make NHS dentistry pay, then there'll be more queues like this up and down the country."

The government's Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said today, Wednesday 7 February, that emergency dental vans would be rolled out across Devon, Dorset, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Somerset.

"We want to encourage dentists to take up NHS work", she said.

"We want more dentists to come back to the NHS fold or to start afresh and that's why our work on new patient premium and our work to improve the rate of units that dentists are paid for will help stimulate the NHS market.

'We also want to encourage dental graduates to stay in the NHS when they graduate from dental school", she added.