Locals slam decision to give 500 asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm NHS dental services
A DECISION to give the 500 asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm NHS dental services has been slammed by locals struggling to get treated.
There are nine NHS dentists in nearby Weymouth and Portland, where the vessel is docked, but none is taking new adult patients.
Locals face three-year waits to register and one drives four hours to Birmingham for treatment.
Others have contemplated using pliers to pull teeth.
NHS Dorset, however, is to get almost £1million from the Home Office to provide healthcare for asylum seekers on the migrant barge.
A medical facility on board will be staffed five days a week with an advanced nurse practitioner.
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A GP will be there for one of those days.
Those with teeth trouble will be added to the already struggling emergency NHS 111 dental service.
Local Kayleigh Masters, 35, a carer, said: “I need root canal treatment.
";It costs more than £1,000 but I can’t afford that.
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“I’m in a lot of pain.
"I have contemplated getting pliers and pulling the tooth out myself.
“The Government should look after us first.
“If we went abroad we’d have to pay for treatment.”