Duke of Gloucester opens University of Suffolk dental hub as it hopes to tackle the county’s dental crisis
A royal visitor has been given a tour of the new facilities that could help tackle the dental crisis in Suffolk.
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, today officially opened the University of Suffolk’s Dental Community Interest Company (CIC) and its teaching facilities.
The £4.7m hub, in the James Hehir building at Ipswich waterfront, offers NHS treatment while also training the next generation of dentists and therapists.
Greeting His Royal Highness were staff and students, county leaders and senior NHS officials.
Lorraine Mattis, chief executive of the CIC, said the service, which has been running since spring last year, had made a massive impact on the community.
Professor Jenny Higham, vice-chancellor of the University of Suffolk, said it was an honour to welcome the Duke of Gloucester to Ipswich today.
She said: “Today is the culmination of a huge amount of hard work by so many people and an important moment of celebration and having a member of the royal family here consolidated that.”
Prof Higham said the team were prepared to deal with the high demand for its services.
“One of the challenges across all of dentistry is not only having the space but also having the staff who are highly trained to carry out the procedures,” she said.
“The advantage we have here is the collaboration between the university and the NHS so we can address these two issues.
“I hope our space helps people feel safe because I think at some facilities people feel unsafe as they have dental problems, they’re in pain and they feel they have nowhere to go and nobody to help them.”
Prof Higham expected the people of Suffolk would be reassured by the dental team’s presence and was keen to see it mobilise support.
This could include going into schools and teaching dental hygiene, she said
However, Prof Higham hoped the university’s attitude would be shared by other institutions to deal with dental crises elsewhere.
She was proud to see Suffolk leading the way.
Prof Higham added: “We are a young, agile and bold university and I use this as an example of the attitude we’d like to bring to other areas.
“This is only a tiny proportion of what the university does but it’s a part of which we are proud. We can use these lessons.
“This proves we can do things and deliver them.”
Ed Garratt, chief executive of NHS Suffolk and North Essex Integrated Care Board, was pleased to see the hub open.
The journey to its opening was extraordinary, he said, from starting as a ‘blue sky idea’ of a collaboration between the NHS and the university to funding, recruitment, training and treating patients.
“It’s been an incredibly rapid process over around two years,” Dr Garratt said.
“Now we’ve launched the finest dental facilities in the country so I think it shows what’s possible with a bit of imagination.
“Dental services in Suffolk were so bad people were going to A&E with these issues, so this will be extremely helpful, and 111 services can refer patients directly here. We’re creating a real oasis in this dental desert.
“The beauty of it is that we’re also training students who will hopefully want to stay and work in Suffolk and for the NHS, creating this virtuous circle.”
Dr Garratt said it would be offering flexible terms and conditions to those it trains in a bid to keep them in the NHS.
This meant profits would be redistributed back into the community, he said.
He estimated the CIC would allow for about 18,000 hours of dental provision per year.
Dr Garratt added: “This is one of, if not the biggest, concerns in our community and we are determined to address this.
“This is a first, very significant step to addressing the crisis here in Suffolk.”
Two students on the university’s dental hygiene and therapy course are Charlie Steward and Nashim Nambejja.
Nashim said the lecturers on the course were helpful and approachable.
They were also offered placements to allow them to get hands-on with patients.
“I’m a little apprehensive as when you’re on placement you’d get people who had been waiting for an appointment for two to three years, so I think we’ll be helping deal with that,” she said.
Charlie said: “It’s amazing here to be able to provide the help needed but its emarassing, in a way, that we have allowed for this dental desert to occur in a first world country with the state of decline of people’s health.
“Knowing that I’ll be defusing the situation is very pleasant.”
Nashim hopes to work with the NHS when she finishes her course, while Charlie hopes to have experience in both the public and private sectors.
One experience that stuck with her, Nashim said, was a patient who needed teeth extracted due to not having seen a dentist in so long.
Charlie added: “My hope is to see patients and help tackle the societal problems we face in dentistry.
“There are children aged 10 coming to the dentist for the first time or others saying they haven’t visited in years. It’s kind of crazy to see that.”
Nashim added: “My hope, when I start working, is to educate a lot of people who come into the surgery about how oral hygiene can affect other parts of your health.”
