37% of residents in the west of Haringey have had difficulty in finding an NHS dentist according to figures published by Haringey’s Lib Dem Council Group.

The statistics gathered from the party’s annual residents’ survey of Lib Dem represented wards confirms concerns that large numbers of people are already without access to an NHS dentist.

Lib Dem Group Leader Neil Williams believes that the statistics do not fully reflect the scale of the problem. He says that although many residents surveyed answered ‘no’ to the NHS dentist question, the comments that some added to their answer implied they had given up even trying to get a health service dentist a long time ago.

The results of the Lib Dem survey are even more poignant in light of last weeks survey by the British Dental Association (BDA) that found nearly six out of ten high street dentists are threatening to reduce their NHS commitment or quit the health service completely.

Neil Williams comments:

“It is a very worrying situation. Dentists seem disillusioned with the Government’s hollow promises. Unless the Government addresses this problem urgently, visits to the dentists will become a luxury that many will be unable to afford.”