More than 300 people queue up in King's Lynn for NHS dentist

Smile Dental Care, in King's Lynn, is offering 1,000 places, taking on the first hundred people to register each day, for a period of ten days.

The first patients were able to sign up on Tuesday, with a queue forming near the High Street premises from 4am in the morning.

It grew to more than 300 people before all the places were taken. The queue has since reformed today.

The practice is the only one in the town which has NHS patients and locals say it is the first time new patients have been accepted anywhere in the area for three years.

Queues of more than 300 snake through King's Lynn's streets on Monday and Tuesday (Image: Mark Bates)

The queues highlight the crisis in dentistry in the region.

Norfolk has been described as a 'dental desert', where demand for NHS services far outstrips supply.

The shortage of dentists is worse in West Norfolk than any other area of Norfolk and Waveney.

MPs have proposed creating a new dentistry school at the UEA in the hope of training more local dentists.

The British Dental Association (BDA) described the scenes in King's Lynn as "belonging in the Soviet Bloc - not in a 21st-century health service".

Mark Bates, who was in the queue with his partner, said: "I queued on Tuesday for two and a half hours but they filled up the spaces before we got to the front.

"I came back early today [Tuesday] and queued again and at least I managed to get the forms in."

"This has been the first chance to register anywhere for three years - hence the desperation," Mr Bates said.

READ MORE: Dental crisis worsens as Norfolk surgeries among 85 affected by Bupa cuts

Rob Colwell, Norfolk County Council for nearby Gaywood South, said: "Far too many people in west Norfolk are struggling to see an NHS dentist and get the affordable dental healthcare they need.

"The vulnerable and elderly can’t stand for hours waiting for one of a few rare NHS spaces - we’ve reached a breaking point in this crisis."

Last week the government announced plans to develop a recovery plan for NHS dentistry.

But the move was criticised by the BDA and MPs as being merely a "plan to have a plan".

According to the association's data, the £3bn dentistry budget has been static for more than a decade and there are fewer NHS dentists working today than in 2017.